Rand is consumed by a need to provide a 'rationalized' explanation for the irrational behavior of her villians. In essence, she declares them to have a sort of Freudian death wish that causes them to sabotage and destroy everyone capable of living happily, ultimately ending with themselves dying last.

Peculiar, given how utterly incompatible her thinking is with the pseudo-scientific bent of Freud's... although the sort of cult that formed around them both is appropriately similar.

I'm pretty sure her thinking was wrong in that regard. Most people don't have secret, rational reasons they hide even from themselves for the irrational things they do. They're simply irrational. Rand, I think, could not accept that.