Apologies, the following is really quite disturbing content, but then the whole case is very disturbing.
Assuming the pilot were to have done it, has anyone seen a good write up of the motive and psychological profile? I'm struggling to find anything credible or in depth.
I have seen a number of media reports suggesting that there was evidence of his being "clinically depressed". However, in the podcast above, the psychologist suggests that his behaviour was not very consistent with depression because of his high level ability to plan and act. She suggests a personality disorder, which became increasingly entrenched due to other influences in his life over this period. Now I hope it goes without saying that neither depression nor personality disorder is generally associated with mass murder!!! so these explanations alone are very insufficient. But I suppose it could be that as a somewhat depressed narcissist, he saw little point in living and little regard for others, but remained motivated to demonstrate his intelligence and ability. It seems possible but quite far fetched, like everything else in this story.
Asides from any psychiatric issue, on the practical motive side, a lot has been written about the breakdown of his marriage, but I'm not aware of any direct line to this event, other than through an overall contribution to his mental state. Also, the fact that his political idol was sentenced to prison the day before is interesting, although alone doesn't provide motivation for the long term planning of this act. However, the wider political context could be relevant. I would like to know more about any ways in which these factors - or others - could have contributed in a specific way. For example, was this an attempt to specifically embarrass the Malaysian military (and is that also consistent with the mystery aspect, and the lack of any political statement made.)
On the other hand, I won't go into the evidence presented of the pilot's positive psychological well-being as I think the consensus assumes this is unreliable due to being part of a cover up. (Wherever we look, there needs to be a cover up).
I think it's interesting that as people examine this case, the mind of the pilot is treated as the black box that we don't really need to explain at a specific level, unlike the technical aspects of the plane. I don't know if people are any less predictable than a 777. For me personally, unless I can come to a psychological explanation that ties ends together, this really weighs on my mind. People do heinous things, and they are always on some level baffling in the sense that most people wouldn't do them, but to be honest I don't think they are usually as baffling as this, and they do make sense in context (on a psychological level such as a long history of sociopathic behaviour or on an environmental level such as a war). Perhaps the issue is that we are lacking context for this.
I'm not saying that this is in any way consistent with the facts of the case so the following is only by way of example. So, I would find it more believable, for example, to suppose that a slow unnoticed cabin depressurisation led to hypoxia in all on board including the pilot, who subsequently made poor hypoxia-induced decisions that led to the deaths of passengers. Returning to normal consciousness, his overwhelming shame and guilt led him to disappear the plane so that no one could know what he had done. There I have a psychological explanation of purposeful disappearance that I can understand.
Anyway, if anyone does have any in depth write ups on the psychological angle, I would be keen to read them.