The Bryan Kohberger Killings: Can We Comprehend His Evil Deed?
Will we ever really know why Bryan Kohberger brutally butchered four victims?
Posted September 2, 2025 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina
Bryan Kohberger has now confessed his culpability for the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022. In a controversial plea deal, he was found guilty by a judge and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, evading the death penalty.
But very little information has emerged regarding the reason then 27-year-old Kohberger committed these horrific crimes. Short of Mr. Kohberger voluntarily revealing his motivation to inflict such carnage on his victims, which he thus far exhibits no inclination to do, can we ever begin to comprehend what possibly compelled a bright, ambitious Ph.D. student fascinated with forensic psychology and criminology to so cruelly, calculatingly, and cold-bloodedly engage in such destructive, vile, vicious behavior himself?
It is this question we seek answers to, i.e., the meaning of such evil behavior, mainly because we are naturally meaning-seeking creatures. But we pursue such elusive answers here with this strong disclaimer and caveat : The minimal information we currently have access to regarding Bryan Kohberger is largely anecdotal, unverified, second-hand, and, in some cases, could be absolutely wrong, and therefore, must be taken with a grain of salt.
With that said, we will try nonetheless to piece together a psychological picture of this convicted killer with the sketchy data available in a preliminary effort to discern his possible motivation for committing this truly evil deed. But, in point of fact, Mr. Kohberger right now remains an exceedingly enigmatic figure.
Even fellow PT blogger and forensic colleague criminologist Dr. Katherine Ramsland, who knew Kohberger as a student at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, reportedly initially could not believe that the mild-mannered, respectful, polite Kohberger had been charged with committing this savage slaughter. She describes herself in hindsight as having been "completely fooled" by this person. Given the limited context of Professor Ramsland's academic interactions with Mr. Kohberger, it seems unlikely that his latent antisocial, homicidal, and evil inclinations would have been readily apparent to anyone in her position, no matter what their profession. Such is the superficially convincing impenetrability and opacity of what psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley (1941) called the "mask of sanity."
Surprise, shock, and denial is quite a common reaction to learning someone we know has been accused of murder. Why is this? Because--even as trained forensic professionals--we still have certain (sometimes unconscious ) preconceptions of what perpetrators of evil deeds do or do not look like. And because we tend to forget that each of us, no matter how nice, educated, good, kind, charming, attractive, or intelligent, is capable of evil given the right or wrong set of circumstances.
Another way of putting it is that we fail to consider the presence of what Carl Jung called the "shadow" concealed by the carefully constructed and publicly displayed "persona" or social mask each of us wears in the world. And because, even as seasoned psychologists or psychiatrists, we still tend to underestimate and minimize the uncanny power, pervasiveness, and existential reality of evil.
Could Kohberger be, as some suggest, a psychopath? (See my prior posts.) Perhaps. However, the primary purpose of this discussion is to try to determine motivation, not psychiatric diagnosis per se, though these can be inextricably intertwined. Having never, as a practicing forensic psychologist , evaluated Mr. Kohberger myself, I am reluctant to render any definitive psychiatric diagnosis beyond offering some generic speculation.
Given the relative paucity of reliable information regarding his behavioral history prior to the commission of these killings, it would at this time be a diagnostic stretch to presume the presence of psychopathy, though there are several supposedly self-reported symptoms such as lack of emotionality, empathy, and conscience commonly seen in the psychopathic person. And while there is apparently no criminal rap sheet, Kohberger is said to have engaged in residential burglary to support his heroin habit while in high school. Based on other random reports of self-inflation and grandiosity, perhaps Kohberger could be better described as exhibiting what I have previously called "psychopathic narcissism." (See my prior post .)
In any case, simply stating that someone is a so-called psychopath (or narcissist) does not necessarily provide a complete explanation or in-depth understanding of why they committed some evil deed. In actuality, as I discuss in my forthcoming book chapter (see APA Handbook of Humanistic and Existential Psychology ) the popular label "psychopath" serves as a very thinly veiled euphemism for "evil" in contemporary culture. And it is precisely the archetypal phenomenon of evil that we are witnessing in such cases the underlying psychology of which must be better comprehended by mental health professionals today.
Curiously, as it turns out, one of the cases studied by Kohberger with great interest in his undergraduate and graduate classes was that of Elliot Rodger (see my prior post ), who murdered six victims, most students at UC Santa Barbara. Like Rodger, Kohberger, according to his own lawyers, was previously diagnosed as suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder. Rodger, the twenty-two-year-old son of a successful Hollywood director, had reportedly been diagnosed with Asperger's Disorder, a mild form of autism, and appears to have suffered from low self-esteem , partly due to his short and slight stature, for which he may have compensated with narcissistic or Napoleonic grandiosity. Rodger, a self-described so-called "involuntary celibate" or incel, felt unattractive to women, never had a girlfriend, and was reportedly in psychiatric treatment of some sort since childhood , including counseling with "multiple therapists" while attending community college.
This begs the question of the possibility of Asperger's syndrome in Kohberger, which, by definition, is a "qualitative impairment in social interaction," including " failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level" and "lack of social or emotional reciprocity." According to the DSM-5 -TR, "Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, including social reciprocity, nonverbal behaviors used for social interaction, and skills in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships. In addition to the social communication deficits, the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder requires the presence of restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities" ( p. 36), and must be diagnostically distinguished from Reactive Attachment Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (DSM-5-TR).
Whether he has ever had sexual intimacy with women (or men) is unknown to me. Obviously, suffering from such significant lack of social skills negatively affects and hinders someone's interpersonal relationships which in time can result in feelings of isolation, alienation, rejection, low self-esteem, anxiety , frustration, anger , and depression . Could Kohberger have related to and identified with Rodger's suffering (and his evil deed) based on his own similar life experience?
Indeed, it has been reported that Mr. Kohberger suffered during mid-to-late adolescence and possibly beyond from feelings of depression, anxiety, and particularly depersonalization or derealization , symptoms often associated with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Panic Disorder, Psychotic Disorders, Borderline Personality Disorder , and Traumatic Brain Injury . Depersonalization involves a subjective sense of being detached from one's feelings, thoughts, or actions. Derealization involves a feeling of detachment from others and the world which can sometimes include "subjective visual distortions" (DSM-5-TR).
As regards this latter phenomenon, Kohberger reportedly complained of what he referred to as "visual snow" when younger, which is believed by some to be a neurological syndrome. However, when considering such bizarre phenomena, it is crucial for the forensic psychologist or psychiatrist to rule-out (or rule-in) the possible presence of psychotic symptoms such as visual hallucinations or fixed delusions. Psychotic symptoms can be found, for instance, in Schizophrenia, Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder , and severe Borderline Personality Disorder, and can also be induced by substance intoxication. (As previously noted, there are reports that Kohberger had a serious heroin addiction during this same period and, therefore, may have dabbled in other drugs as well.)
This is part one of a two-part series.
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.; text rev.). American Psychiatric Association.
Diamond, S.A. (2026). "The psychology and psychotherapy of evil: Encountering the daimonic." Chapter 16 in Hoffman, L. (Ed.). (2026). American Psychological Association Handbook of Humanistic and Existential Psychology. Vol. 1. APA Press.
Diamond, S.A. (1996). Anger, madness, and the daimonic: The psychological genesis of violence, evil, and creativity . SUNY Press.
Diamond, S. A. (2022). Existential perspectives of psychopathy. In J. E. Vitale (Ed.), The complexity of psychopathy. Springer Nature. (pp. 413–458).
Frankl, V. (1946/1985). Man's search for meaning. Washington Square Press.
Cleckley, H. (1941/1988). The mask of sanity . Mosby.
May, R. (1969). Love and will. Norton.
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Stephen Diamond, Ph.D. , is a clinical and forensic psychologist in Los Angeles, and the author of Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity .
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