Anders Behring Breivik: psychiatric report was based on evil fabrications

[alp227]

Source: AP

Anders Behring Breivik has said a psychiatric report that declared him insane was based on "evil fabrications" and meant to portray him as irrational and unintelligent.

"It is not me who is described in that report," the rightwing extremist, who admits killing 77 people in bombing and shooting attacks on 22 July 2011, said in court.

A second psychiatric examination found Breivik sane. The panel of five judges trying Breivik on terror charges for the attacks will consider both reports.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/25/anders-behring-breivik-psychiatric-report

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. One might say he's nuttier than squirrel shit.

Or, put another way, barking mad. I don't know the standard for insanity as a defense in Norway; under the rule usually applied in the US (the "M'Naghten rule&quot , he would probably be found legally sane. However, there is obviously something very wrong with the way he thinks; there's some serious personality disorder, at least. Maybe one could call it psychopathy as opposed to psychosis. But the fact that he thinks he's perfectly sane tends to suggest that he's very fucked up. Or maybe just evil.

But what's evil? Are evil people "insane" or otherwise disordered?

[Posteritatis]

5. When you start with "people I dislike have something medically wrong with them"...

...You tend to go down some pretty dark paths.

I'm no more qualified to pronounce verdict on this guy's mental state than anyone else likely to participate in this thread, but I don't think someone has to be "insane" in order to be evil.

There's a long-running trend around here to take that route and equate "belief or act I don't like" with "insane" - or, way too often, running that equation the other way around.

Never fails to make me uncomfortable.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. But where does evil come from? Why are people evil?

Why do some have no regard or consideration for other people? Why do they intentionally harm others? Obviously because this gratifies them in some way - power, control, whatever. Or maybe there's something they want and somebody else is in the way, so they harm or eliminate that person without a second thought. They have no conscience. But why? Most people don't behave that way. Is this a psychological disorder, i.e., psychopathy? If not, where does it come from?

I don't know whether Breivik is mentally ill (I don't think he's actually psychotic), or evil, or both. I'm just asking the question.

What is evil? Where does it come from?

[Archae]

8. "Evil" does not exist.

It is a supernatural concept to explain away rotten human actions.

And there is nothing supernatural.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. OK. So where do "rotten human actions" come from?

Why do they do them? If people are rotten, are they mentally ill? If they aren't mentally ill, why are they rotten?

[Archae]

13. Bad things humans do can have several reasons.

Mental illness is just one.

People on drugs or alcohol can be another.

Bad upbringing can be another, living in a bad family.

We have a guy in jail here in Sheboygan, the guy is 61, and he used to watch the obituaries and then break in to houses vacated after someone died.
He's obviously greedy, and no doubt lazy also.

The point is there is no supernatural reason for humans acting like this.

[TheTranscendence]

10. Disorder?

Why does he necessarily have to be disordered? Is it just because his ideology differs from your own? If there's a war and a soldier kills 80 'enemy' soldiers with a gun, does that make him 'evil' or disordered? Why, why not? Would the parents of the dead soldiers think that their killer was evil? Yeah they probably would, out of BIAS.

Brievik rationally believes that Islam is caustic in Europe and has done serious damage, many people would also agree with that. Are those other people going to massacre the perpetrators they believe responsible for its occurrence? Most likely not. That does not make Brievik disordered. Was mass killing the smartest course of action Anders Breivik could have taken to elicit a response from the public to draw light on his countries perceived problems? Arguably not, that does not mean he is 'evil' or disordered, it just means he has a different viewpoint from you.

In his own eyes he took a righteous path. He didn't rape or otherwise desecrate the bodies of his victims, where is the deviant behaviour? He saw the people he killed as enemies of the country he loves and felt a duty as a Norwegian to protect that country in the way he best saw fit. While many people, including myself, don't agree with his course of action, I'm sure a lot of Europeans secretly reconcile with his underlying ideology and anti-Islamic stance.

So as for his mental state and perceived disorder, i think that it's more a matter of your opinion rather than Anders Breivik's actual state of mind.

[LeftishBrit]

11. What a repulsive post!!!!

You sound like a neo-Nazi.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. I hope you're kidding.

Because if you're not, your worldview is pretty skewed. "In his eyes he took a righteous path." Yes, that's the point - "in his eyes." But his eyes weren't seeing normally. The belief that murdering 77 innocent people in cold blood is justifiable because he thinks he's fighting a righteous war against some "other" is not just a different opinion. It is a disordered state of mind. It is not normal. Normal people don't do those kinds of things. He didn't rape or defile the bodies, so it wasn't deviant behavior??? Dude, murdering people is deviant behavior! Are you trying to suggest that if one believes sincerely that horrific acts are justifiable, then they are because that's just that's person's opinion? At the risk of having Godwin's Law invoked on me, I'd like to point out that Hitler was apparently quite sincere as well. So would you then say that it's wrong to say Hitler was disordered, since he felt as a German that his actions were necessary to protect Germany?

Whether Breivik is mentally ill or just plain evil is for others to decide. But don't tell me that it's just my opinion that there's something wrong with him and what he did.

[Archae]

14. A better example is Sgt. York.

He became a hero after using his sharpshooting skills in WW1 to kill dozens of Germans, resulting in dozens more surrendering to him.

Was Sgt York evil?

No, because he was in a war situation, many of those Germans would gladly have shot him.

None of Breivik's victims could have shot back.
A few might have wanted to, but they couldn't.

[Odin2005]

2. Sounds like Schizotypal Personality Disorder.

[shanti]

3. I don't agree

I know someone with that Dx and he would never harm anyone. He just sits in his house all day, drinking beer and smoking cigs.

However, I do think Brevik is a psychopath. JMHO

[steve2470]

6. yup, he's a psychopath alright nt

[msanthrope]

4. So say the voices in his head....nt