Genre:
Non-Fiction/Adult

Subject Headings:
Crime, Depression, High school, Personality disorders, Violence/assault

Review:
The stark, unadorned title and cover imagery of Denver journalist Dave Cullen’s Columbine is a statement about what lies within the pages. Columbine is brilliant piece of just-the-facts (and lots of them) investigative journalism. The raw emotion elicited by Cullen’s examination of the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO is built on a concrete foundation of recordings and diaries purposefully left by the two shooters; government records, witness accounts and FBI psychological profiles; and a dedication to debunking myths that have accumulated in the more than 10 years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold turned their murderous fantasy into a tragic cultural touchstone. In addition to a clear-eyed, graphic description of the massacre itself, Columbine looks at the developmental histories of Harris and Klebold as well as the emotionally and politically tense aftermath of the shootings. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier, the man charged with creating psychological profiles of the killers, helps Cullen paint a detailed picture of the psychopathy (Harris) and depression (Klebold) that resulted in the deaths of 13 people.

Columbine exposes developmental warning signs that may be important for parents, counselors, teachers and law enforcement agents, while also raising questions about the limits of intervention. Counselor educators should consider Columbine as a tool for exploring a range of issues critical to both beginning and experienced counselors. Those issues include the responsibilities and ethical challenges of communication among counselors, parents and law enforcement in situations where clients show signs of an inclination to harm themselves or others, as well as the unfortunate reality that those signs are not always easy to discern.