Breivik judged "sane"

[Prospero]

So the courts have ruled that mass killer Anders Breivik was sane when he killed 77 people. he has been given the maximum sentence allowed in the Norwegian courts - 21 years. Remarkable. As he was sentenced he smirked and afterwards apologised for not having killed more people.

What do you all think. Was he sane or mad? Will another prisoner find the ppportunity to kill him while he is in prison?

[Dino Velvet]

So the courts have ruled that mass killer Anders Breivik was sane when he killed 77 people. he has been given the maximum sentence allowed in the Norwegian courts - 21 years. Remarkable. As he was sentenced he smirked and afterwards apologised for not having killed more people.

What do you all think. Was he sane or mad? Will another prisoner find the ppportunity to kill him while he is in prison?

Not sure the legal standard for insanity over there. Even under our standards I couldn't be completely sure. He seemed like he was aware of what he was doing and there were consequences for his actions.

Wasn't there a special room built for him in case he were judged to be insane?

He wouldn't need to take a blade in the shower if he offended in my country. Don't know how he will be housed and protected there.

Irvin is from there so I look forward to his opinion.

[Stavros]

There was a vogue in the 1970s to re-classify insanity as if it were but an extreme form of normal behaviour. Although I don't think RD Laing (The Divided Self, and with David Cooper, Sanity, Madness and the Family) went that far, he was interested in the way Schizophrenics appeared to be 'mad' because their language and behaviour became so deviant compared to most other people -the more he looked into it the more he grew to be critical of the 'institutionalisation' that some people were forced into because they were 'mad' -and Laing meant families as well as hospitals or asylums- whereas Laing believed they had conceptual and behavioural problems that could be treated with therapy. Thomas Szasz however did attempt a 'cultural' interpretation of Insanity and wrote a book called The Myth of Mental Illness.

However, there is a legal definition which seems rational and fits Breivik:
Insanity is a mental illnnes so severe that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct his or her affairs due to pyschosis or is subject to uncontrollable and impulsive behaviour.
I think that Breivik is thus legally insane, because he cannot distinguish his own behaviour from other people's, and thinks that many others like him would also kill people as he did, whereas even in war senior officers would consider a soldier who went on a rampage and shot as many people as Breivik did to be unhinged. Just because someone is insane it doesn't mean they always hear voices and roll around the floor at midnight when there is a full moon, foaming at the mouth. But I am not 100% sure.

[Prospero]

This was the verdict Breivik wanted and now says he will write a book expounding his political philosophy. It does seem remarkable that someone who killed so many can be jailed for such a brief time. (Though the Norwegian penal system reserves the right to extend that period if he appears to be a threat to the public. So I doubt that he'll be seeing the outside world until he is an ancient man - if at all).

[Dino Velvet]

So I doubt that he'll be seeing the outside world until he is an ancient man - if at all).

Let's hope so. Those people deserve justice. He might be their Manson and never, ever be let out.

[broncofan]

I am not sure what the legal standard is for insanity in Norway, but in the U.S, even severe schizophrenics who are clearly psychotic are ruled sane legally. That woman, I believe last name Wuornos (inspiration for the movie Monster) was stark raving mad in every interview I saw of her, but she was executed. Here, it seems that if someone generally understands cause effect relationships and knows what the immediate consequences of their actions will be, they are deemed sane. Having such a restrictive definition for sanity seems to be somewhat pointless. It seems the authorities have generally made the decision that they will not allow someone who has committed a heinous crime to meet the elusive standard.

Breivik knew that other people would view what he was doing as wrong, that his actions would result in mass death, and that he would be arrested. Even if he suffers from massive delusions about what Muslims do, about the state of European affairs and holds a lot of generally delusional viewpoints, he seems to act with a clear understanding of what will come of his actions. I'm not sure if this should be the standard, but a lot of authorities act as though it is.

I doubt Breivik will ever see the light of day. It would be a travesty if he were ever let out.

[Queens Guy]

I think he is sane. Personally, it takes a lot to clear the hurdle and be insane. He knew right from wrong. He chose to do wrong.

He didn't have any medical condition that led him to misconstrue facts. He knew the unarmed children were unarmed children. He didn't think they were mountain lions or polar bears that were attacking him. To be insane, in my opinion, requires that kind of basic disconnect from reality that is due to some kind of biological cause beyond ones control.

May he serve the rest of his natural life in jail. May the innocent children he killed haunt him in nightmares. And may his work never be published.

[Prospero]

His work is already being published! His letters and ramblings are sent to other lunatic right wingers and published on a blog.

[irvin66]

That man is clearly sick in the mind! He should have been in the mental hospital for the rest of his life and heavily sedated! :geek:
They could have set an overdosed on him by "medication errors"....