Anders Breivik, the Norwegian gunman who killed 77 and injured 151 in July was "insane" when he carried out the attacks, forensic psychiatrists have concluded in a 236-page report to the court in Oslo which will decide Breivik's fate, according to news reports of the proceedings on 29 November.
If the verdict is backed by the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine and subsequently accepted by the Oslo district court, then Breivik will escape criminal accountability for his actions, avoid facing trial and be committed to compulsory psychiatric care, possibly for life. If not, Breivik is due to stand trial on 16 April 2012.
Svein Holden, Norway's chief prosecutor, told the court that according to the psychiatrists' report, Breivik has suffered for years from paranoid schizophrenia and was "psychotic" when he carried out the killings.
"The conclusion of the forensic experts is that Anders Behring Breivik was insane," Svein is quoted as saying. He says that the psychiatrists describe a man "who finds himself in his own delusional universe, where all his thoughts and acts are governed by these delusions".
Guilt denied
On 22 July, Breivik disguised himself as a policeman and planted a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people. Then he drove and caught a ferry to the island of Utoya where, still in uniform, he killed a further 69 people, mostly young people attending a summer youth camp held by Norway's governing Labour Party.
After more than an hour, he gave himself up to police arriving at the scene and admitted to the killings, but he denies criminal guilt, claiming he's commander of a Norwegian resistance movement against multiculturalism and socialism.
Legal experts contacted by New Scientist say that the crucial distinction is between medical and legal definitions of insanity. To meet the legal definition of insanity in most countries, the defendant would have to be proven to be psychotic to the point where they could no longer distinguish between legal definitions of right and wrong, and no longer appreciate the nature of their actions at the time of the offence.
Marked by Delusions
Some have challenged the idea that Breivik was insane, on the grounds that his killing spree took meticulous planning and awareness to execute.
"He clearly knew that he was going to be arrested, and he took measures to make sure he wouldn't be caught during the killings, so he must have known it would be against the law, essentially, that it must be wrong," says Tom Fahy, a professor of forensic mental health at King's College London.
To declare him psychotic at the time, the Norwegian psychiatrists must have found him deluded, says Fahy. "The big issue revolves around whether someone is psychotic, that is, whether they're deluded or hallucinating, usually because of schizophrenia or manic depression," he says. "It seems the psychiatrists think he was psychotic, and must have found evidence of delusions or hallucinations."
According to news reports, the two forensic psychiatrists, Torgeir Husby and Synne Sorheim, interviewed Breivik 13 times for a total of 36 hours, and concluded he is indeed in a "universe marked by delusions".
Transcended reality
Paul Appelbaum, a professor of psychiatry, medicine and law at Columbia University in New York, says that even though Breivik carefully planned and executed the killings, he could still have lost contact with reality to the point that he was no longer in control of his own actions. "That standard is not inconsistent with a carefully planned and implemented assault like the one in question," says Appelbaum. "Someone experiencing severe delusions, believing, for example that some person or group is persecuting him, might act to retaliate against the perceived persecutor in a deliberate, planful way."
Furthermore, says Appelbaum, if such a person felt justified in acting this way against "oppressors", he might expect afterwards to be treated as a hero, not a criminal.
"Is this someone who is merely acting on a set of very odd political beliefs, or were his actions determined by delusional ideas that clearly transcend reality?" asks Appelbaum. "Based on the conclusions of the Norwegian psychiatrists who evaluated him, it appears they concluded the latter was the case."
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
Have your say
Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.
Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article
Subscribe now to comment.
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
ok state ok state kurt budke regis philbin regis and kelly reno fire regis philbin last show
Fitness fanatics in the U.K. will soon have another gadget to aid them in their quest for physical supremacy:
I get asked a lot why Instagram is so popular. It might be because we just threw the first iPhone photography conference,?
