Yes, Dahner is probably a good example of what I'm talking about: the conjunction of mistreatment and organic brain disorders. His parents denied scientists at Fresno permission to examine his brain before cremation, so we can't be sure exactly what was wrong with him, but we know he was an alcoholic and the son of a mentally ill mother.

Charles Whitman is another: beaten by his father, lost his brother to murder, plus a tumour on his amygdala.

The point the English professors are making is that the new generation of students see monsters entirely as victims of circumstances. It's an ideological belief.