Breivik Trial and The Crisis Of Psychiatry As Science - Links
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Breivik Trial and The Crisis Of Psychiatry As Science - Google Search
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Extremist Norwegian killer declared sane - FT.com
Anders Behring Breivik's Raised Fist -- The Varied...
Breivik trial: Norwegians rethink role of psychiat...
Breivik's sanity to be in focus as trial opens - Y...
Conflicting Assessments: New Report Finds Breivik ...
OSLO (Reuters) – Anders Behring Breivik is in all ...
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Showpiece trial awaits as Breivik is ruled 'not insane' - Europe ...
The new conclusion comes just six days before Anders Behring Breivik is scheduled to go on trial over terror charges for the massacre on 22 July last year and could prompt prosecutors to seek a jail sentence instead of compulsory commitment to psychiatric care.
In a comic aside from the case that rocked Norway last year, Breivik's legal team yesterday posed for publicity pictures in a choreographed photo shoot, which gave the upcoming trial a Hollywood flavour. The photos of Tord Jordet, Odd Ivar Groen, Geir Lippestad and Vibeke Hein Baera could be mistaken for publicity shots for a new American legal TV series – or for a group of commercially savvy ambulance-chasing personal-injury lawyers.
The new psychiatric assessment conflicts with an earlier assessment that found Breivik psychotic during and after the attacks, diagnosing him as a paranoid schizophrenic. The court will take both psychiatric assessments into account during the trial, which starts on Monday and is scheduled to last 10 weeks. The new assessment of Breivik was made by the psychiatrists Terje Toerrissen and Agnar Aspaas on a request from the court after widespread criticism of the first diagnosis. "Our conclusion is that he is not psychotic at the time of the actions of terrorism and he is not psychotic now," Mr Toerrissen said.
One of Breivik's lawyers said he was "pleased" by the assessment. He recently wrote a letter to a Norwegian tabloid newspaper saying that being forced into psychiatric care would be a "fate worse than death". He wrote: "To send a political activist to an asylum is more sadistic and more evil than killing him!"
The full report was confidential and the psychiatrists declined to give details on why they reached a different conclusion than the first team of experts. They said they will present their reasoning when they testify in the trial.
Breivik has confessed to setting off the bomb in Oslo, killing eight people, and opening fire at a youth camp, killing 69 others. But he denies criminal guilt, saying the attacks were necessary in what he calls a civil war against Islam in Europe.
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Anders Breivik: Norwegian Criminal Sentences - NYTimes.com
Anders Breivik
By ANDREW ROSENTHALIf the court finds him insane, Mr. Breivik will be kept under forced psychiatric care “for as long as his illness persists” (possibly the rest of his life). Otherwise, Mr. Breivik’s maximum sentence will be 21 years, although a judge can extend his incarceration after that point if he’s still considered dangerous.
By American standards that’s a shockingly lenient punishment. Comparing one high-profile case with another—if a Florida jury finds George Zimmerman guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, he’ll face a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a minimum penalty of 25 years.
The American system, oriented around punishment (vengeance) and containment (keeping dangerous people off the streets), is arguably more satisfying for a crime like Mr. Breivik’s. But outside of worst-of-the-worst type cases, it’s Norway, with its focus on rehabilitation, that has the more rational and effective prison policy.
Our prisons are degrading and dangerous. A 2005 commission found that more than a million people had been sexually assaulted in prisons over a twenty-year period. They’re also overcrowded, which is hardly surprising since America has 751 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, or roughly 2.3 million people behind bars, more than any other country. Harsh conditions don’t seem to deter criminals, or prevent recidivism. Nearly 60 percent of former convicts end up back in jail after two years.
Norway has 71 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, with prisons that resemble “college dorm[s],” according to a Daily Beast article from last year. A maximum-security facility for murderers and rapists close to the Swedish border has “mint-green walls and IKEA-style furniture in varnished natural wood….each cell comes with a flat-screen TV, a private bath, and a large unbarred window.” Seems like a waste of money. And yet these cushy accommodations don’t attract repeat visitors. Only 20 percent of former convicts end up back in jail after two years.
I can hear people saying, what has Norway got to do with anything? It’s a small, isolated country with a historically low crime rate. That’s true. But it’s worth noting that America’s vastly greater experience with crime has not made us any better at dealing with it.
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FROM THE WEB
Posted: 6:21 a.m. Tuesday, April 10, 2012
OSLO, Norway — When Anders Behring Breivik goes on trial next week, both the prosecution and the defense will say he killed 77 people in a bomb-and-shooting massacre that jolted the world's image of terrorism.
The only question now is whether the self-styled anti-Muslim militant was sane when he did it — and after a new psychiatric assessment Tuesday, even that may no longer be in dispute.
"Our conclusion is that he (was) not psychotic at the time of the actions of terrorism and he is not psychotic now," Terje Toerrissen, one of the psychiatrists who examined Breivik in prison, told The Associated Press.
The twin attacks on July 22 — a bomb in Oslo's government district followed by a shooting spree at the governing Labor Party's youth camp outside the capital — brutally shocked Norway and reminded the West of terror threats other than al-Qaida.
The blond, blue-eyed gunman surrendered to police on a lakeside island where the bodies of his many teenage victims lay scattered. He claimed he was the Islamic terror group's antithesis, a modern-day crusader waging a war against Islam in Europe.
Breivik confessed to the attacks but rejected criminal guilt, saying he had acted to protect Norway from being overrun by Muslims by targeting the left-leaning political establishment he claimed had betrayed the country with liberal immigration policies.
The psychiatric report presented to the Oslo district court on Tuesday backed up Breivik's own claim that he is sane, and contradicted an earlier assessment that declared him psychotic and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. That first diagnosis was met widespread criticism, prompting the court to order the second review.
Breivik's defense lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said the new report means Breivik's testimony will be crucial "when the judges decide whether he is insane or not." The trial starts Monday and is scheduled to last 10 weeks.
Asked whether Breivik will defend his actions in court, Lippestad said: "He won't only defend it, he will also regret that he didn't go further."
It's up to the judges to decide whether Breivik is mentally competent to be sentenced to prison. If not, he will be committed to compulsory psychiatric care. Either way, there are provisions in Norwegian law that could keep the 33-year-old locked up for the rest of his life.
But to some, the diagnosis has broader implications in how the attacks are viewed.
"If he's insane, it's very hard to pin it on anybody else," said Hans Rustad, who runs one of the many right-wing, anti-Islamic blogs that Breivik cited in an online manifesto before the attacks.
In his 1,500-page document, Breivik claimed to be part of a secret right-wing militia modeled after the medieval Christian military order known as the Knights Templar. Its goal, he claimed, was to purge Europe of Muslim influence in a revolution that would target what he called "cultural Marxists" in the initial phase.
Investigators have found no trace of the group and say Breivik plotted and carried out the attacks on his own. A leaked copy of the initial psychiatric examination described his crusader fantasy as a token of the "bizarre, grandiose delusions" of a sick mind.
A diagnosis of insanity would make it easier for far-right bloggers and politicians to dissociate their political views from Breivik. They have denounced his attacks as the work of a madman.
But some suggest they have a degree of moral responsibility for agitating online against Muslims.
"To me it's obvious that even if he is insane there is definitely a political element," said Oeyvind Stroemmen, a Norwegian Green Party member who had warned before the attacks that hardening anti-Muslim attitudes in Europe could turn violent.
Breivik was charged with terrorism and premeditated murder last month in an indictment that traced his steps from parking a van with a 2,100-pound (950-kilogram) fertilizer bomb outside a building housing the prime minister's office at 3:17 p.m. to his surrender to police on Utoya island three hours and 18 minutes later.
Eight people died in the bombing, while 69 people — mostly teenagers — were killed on Utoya. Dozens more were wounded as the gunman, disguised as a police officer, opened fire on unsuspecting youths gathered for an annual summer retreat.
In the indictment prosecutors assumed that Breivik was mentally ill and said they would seek compulsory psychiatric care instead of imprisonment unless new information about his mental health emerged.
The latest psychiatric report was confidential, but national broadcaster NRK and other Norwegian media who claimed to have seen its conclusions said it described Breivik as narcissistic but not psychotic.
Prosecutor Inga Beijer Eng told the AP on Tuesday it was too early to say which of the assessments would be given most weight. "We will not decide on what kind of punishment we will ask for until the end of the trial," she said.
Breivik's lawyers said before Easter they plan to call radical Islamists and right-wing extremists to testify during the trial in an attempt to show that there are other people who share his world view.
Lippestad said the point is to prove that there is a narrow group of like-minded people who "look at things the same way, who are of the opinion that we are in war, the Muslim and the Christian world."
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Ritter reported from Stockholm. He can be reached at http://twitter.com/karl_ritter
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April 10, 2012 02:18 PM EDT
Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NORWAY: BREIVIK DECLARED SANE, PSYCHIATRIC REPORT ...
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6 days ago – 2 Responses to NORWAY: BREIVIK DECLARED SANE, PSYCHIATRIC REPORT SAYS HE CAN STAND TRIAL……. Truthiocity says: ...
NORWAY: BREIVIK DECLARED SANE, PSYCHIATRIC REPORT SAYS HE CAN STAND TRIAL…….
Norway killer Breivik is sane: psychiatric report
Published: 10 Apr 2012 12:09 GMT+12 Responses to NORWAY: BREIVIK DECLARED SANE, PSYCHIATRIC REPORT SAYS HE CAN STAND TRIAL…….
MORE ON BREIVIK, MORE PSYCHIATRISTS CLAIM ABB SUFFERS FROM ACUTE NARCISSISTIC DISORDER……..
Mama’s Boy and Mass Murderer
Experts Disagree on Psychological State of Norwegian Killer
7 Responses to MORE ON BREIVIK, MORE PSYCHIATRISTS CLAIM ABB SUFFERS FROM ACUTE NARCISSISTIC DISORDER……..
- Pingback: MORE ON BREIVIK, MORE PSYCHIATRISTS CLAIM ABB SUFFERS FROM ACUTE NARCISSISTIC DISORDER…….. - ScrollPost.com
- “the anti-Islamic scene full of crusader fantasies” HUH? Crusader fantasies? What the hell is that woman gabbling about? I’ve come across a few crusadery looking facebook avatars but there’s no scene full of crusader fantasies. Is that what she means? Since when does a tacky FB avatar constitute a delusion? If porky pig is my FB avatar does it follow that I have fantasies about not wearing pants in front of others?
“This was coupled with an extremely sadistic disorder,” The article gives absolutely no indication of what the woman means by this. Sadism is currently officially recognized as a sexual dysfunction only and if this woman is a psychiatric proffessional she should know that. Though I personally agree with the school of thought that believes there is such a thing as sadistic persoanlity disorder which is a general need to dominate others without sexual satisfaction being dependent upon it.
She clearly means Sadistic Personality Disorder rather than a dependance upon kinky sex but such a disorder is not currently recognized as existing.
Having one mental difficulty will interfere with your development and cause you to develop other mental problems. It’s like if someone is bad at reading they will develop problems in other school subjects as well.
The result is that he can be partially schizophrenic and his behavior can conform to a narcissist. His long rambling jornal that he calls a manifesto could be the manifesto of a self important narcissist or it could be the disconnected paranoid ramblings of someone on their way to schizophrenia (it seems to be that).
Someone might seem narcissistic because their mental problem interferes with their ability to connect and thus develop empathy for others.
Also his reaction could be from not being willing to face the pain from the guilt involved in thinking from the point of view of his victims. He avoids the subject by talking about himself – this is done by people in thereapy to avoid feared pain, not because they don’t care. They do it because they do care but are afraid of the feelings involved and don’t know how to handle them- so they start talking about something else.
He may have naricsism and inability to connect as side result of living with other disorders.
Narcissists need constant positive reactions. Brievic expected to be hated for his act.
Narcissists constantly try to denegrate anyone who might be better than them in any way (but so do insecure failures). Brievik did this (but we all do it to a degree) but sometimes with such bizzare statements that it would only be the sort of thing a schizophrenic would say – like the comments in his “manifesto” about this mother and sisters promiscuity and that they had venerial diseases ( I recall marx said something similar about his aunt in Das Kapital- NOT). The intent could be seen as narcissistic but the content is the sort of thing you read in schizophrenics jornals.
The fact is you can be a little from collumn A, which then causes you to be a little from column B.
The contents of the “manifesto” indicate the main mental probem is schizophrenia (or rather a slow descent into it after living for years in a pre schizophrenic state) and other problems come form the frustrations of not being able to function in the world or socially while suffering from the pre schizophrenia (commonly known as Schizotypal Personality Disorder). - Pingback: DOUCHEWRITER Oyvind Strømmen HAS BOOK ‘DARK NET’ FISKED BY FELLOW NORWEGIAN…….. |
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- Pingback: FJORDMAN AT GATES OF VIENNA: BREIVIK THE NARCISSIST……. |
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11.19am: Helen Pidd has filed an account of the morning's proceedings. I will post a link when it goes up on the Guardian website. In the meantime, here are some excerpts:
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He [Breivik] expressed no regret for planning and carrying out the attacks which left 77 dead last summer. Maintaining he acted out of "goodness not evil" to prevent a "major civil war", Breivik insisted, "I would have done it again." ...
He quoted from a variety of sources to support his case, including, he said, a story written in the Times in February 2010 which he said reported that "three out of five Englishmen believe that the UK has turned into a dysfunctional society as a result of multiculturalism". The Guardian has not yet found evidence of the Times report.
Breivik told the court that "ridiculous" lies had been told about him, rattling off a list which accused him of being a narcissist who was obsessed with the red jumper he wore to his first court hearing, of having a "bacterial phobia", "an incestuous relationship with my mother", "of being a child killer despite no one who died on Utoya being under 14".
He was not insane, he repeated many times. He claimed it was Norway's politicians who should be locked up in the sort of mental institution he can expect to spend the rest of his days if the court declares him criminally insane at the end of the ten-week trial. He said: "They expect us to applaud our ethnic and cultural doom... They should be characterised as insane, not me. Why is this the real insanity? This is the real insanity because it is not rational to work to deconstruct ones own ethnic group, culture and religion."
Assessment 1 says he was psychotic during the attack and during observation and Paranoid Schizophrenic since 2006 (and possibly since 1998 when he dropped out of highschool). It was a slow progression until the present day. The description of his life does seem to be that of somene with slowly worsening schizoprhrenia – as does much of the content of his “manifesto”.
The assessment went into great detail as to what lead them to their conclusions.
Assessment 2 says he was not psychotic but this article doesn’t specify what their other conclusions were or how they were determined. So as of now it’s absolutely not a refutation as far as we should be concearned, especially because of the noteriety of the case and public pressure for there to be a different conclusion.
One word about Narcissism. People with this personality disorder are HATED by those who know them as they put everyone down in order to make themselves feel better. But the only person who spoke to the press said nice things about him.
This is the first assessment:
http://www.document.no/2012/03/forensic-psychiatric-statement-anders-behring-breivik-x/