ROAD RAGE!

Friday July 1, from all media accounts, 17 year-old Khajeel Mais was the lone passenger in a taxicab, travelling in Havendale, still a 'nice' neighbourhood in St Andrew, the taxicab meets into an accident with another car - a high-end, dark-coloured sports utility vehicle (SUV) BMW X5 or X6. The SUV driver shoots into the taxicab; young Khajeel is shot and later dies. What is this? Road rage? Dr Miguel Brooks, clinical psychologist, said "yes".

"It is a manifestation of road rage, but road rage is not one of the classifications that we have in medicine or psychology, it is really a symptom of a manifestation of other situations such as stress, anxiety or antisocial personality disorder which used to be called moral insanity," he said.

Brooks said road rage can also be a consequence of other conditions, such as substance abuse and impulse-control disorder.

Angry driving

Road rage is not now recognised by the mental community as a mental disorder, but more mental-health experts have been studying and focusing on people for whom angry driving is actually pathological. For instance, psychologists Galovski, Malta and Blanchard in their 2006 book, Road Rage, note that road rage can be triggered by the behaviours of other drivers (for example improper or no signalling; switching lane abruptly) or by the 'angry driver's' perception of other drivers, that is, the 'angry driver' may become unjustifiably enraged because of his or her own faulty reasoning and perception of another driver's action.

The 'angry driver' may shout expletives, wave his or her fist at the other driver, tailgate the 'offending driver', block the path of the other driver and, in the worst-case scenario, trail the other driver to his or her destination and assault him or her. The case in the news here now, of course, is the extreme of the worst case scenario - pulling a firearm to shoot into the car of the 'offending driver'.

Sick society

But in Brooks' opinion, the local case should not only be from the context of mental disorder but should also be viewed on several other levels.

"I regard (this case) as more a psychosocial phenomenon - a manifestation of the sick society, our socioeconomic structure, our class structure and even our racial divide. The news, for instance, focuses on the luxury vehicle, but does not describe the taxi," he said.

"The person (the BMW driver) is in possession of two lethal weapons - the motor vehicle and his firearm - both on a person who is insecure ... are strong phallic symbols, extensions of his personality, just like a policeman's gun is an extension of his persona. So it is a part of his manhood," he continued.

This road-rage case Brooks further opined was an encounter between Jamaica's modern aristocracy and a commoner, the taxi driver, a display of the historical echoes of slavery and plantation society.

"I would invite (readers) to contemplate another scenario. Suppose the vehicle that bumped into the BMW was another luxury vehicle, a Mercedes or Audi, for example, and the driver was a white woman, would the outcome be the same? It is a manifestation of the greater ills in the society, so how dare you bump into my vehicle. So all these things must be taken into consideration," said Brooks.

Eulalee Thompson is health editor and a professional counsellor; email: eulalee.thompson@gleanerjm.com.