Strong psychiatrist's defense of own conclusion that ABB is"judicially insane"

arildno

While I personally do NOT share forensic psycjiatrist Torgeir Husby's contested conclusion that ABB was "judicially insane", his explanation on Thursday of his views showed that he had solid reasons (degree "solid" that can be epected in the psychiatry field) for his conclusions.
His main points were:
a) The mother's testimony, that ABBs personality deteriorated/changed severely from his re-moving into his childhood home from 2006, and
b) That it to Husby (and to his colleague Sørheim) was, in their convewrsations with Breivik, that he figured himself in an extreme degree to be The Great Saviour, i.e, thar Breivik thought himself had some "holy duty" to perform through his massacres.

Furthermore, Husby was clear that he certainly was not the ignoramus of political extremism he has been ridiculed as, but that it seemed to him that Breivik's political extremism was less of a determinant of his actions than Breiviks grossly inflated, and reality-absent self-image and sadistic inclinations.


The "jury is still out" whether ABB is to be declared sane or insane, but, at least, Husby has shown himself as a professional, and I do no longer entertain the speculation that he was prompted to his conclusion concerning ABBs judicial sanity on basis of maximizing the probability that ABB could be held incarcerated for life by getting him declared insane.

Husby is an honest hard-working psychiatrist, and his assessment of ABB cannot be dismissed easily,

256bits

Judicially insane may not be the same as clinically insane but is a distinct classification from the other depending upon the law of a country. There definetely is some overlap from clinical to judical. Moment of passion defense, where one loses all control, would fall into the judically insane category, but that has been ruled out even by Brevik himself.

It would appear that he has some kind of phychosis and they are having trouble pinpointing what it actually is that caused him to have delusions of grandeur and saviour, and subsequentially perform his 'great' deed ( no one as far as I know has come to his defence that what he did was necessary or or for legitamate reasons )

Experts are to give an unbiased impartial opinion, to the best of their knowledge, in court. A conclusion based on prompting from the prosecution would necessarily be a reason for a mistrial if the defense would so wish. For that reason prosecution and defence seek out an expert(s) that will support their own agenda.

zoobyshoe

Arildno, do you have a definition of "judicially insane" you can post. I get the feeling it is less stringent than the US's "legally insane".

256bits

I think what you are alluding to is "cognative insanity" whereby one, due to a defect, does not know the nature of the act. This is the usual defense in terms of a plea of insanity. This is what they are debating for Brevik.

Another, which I stated as a crime of passion, is used less often and not accepted in all jurisdictions. Here one loses self contol at the time of the act.

zoobyshoe

You're right about "cognitive insanity". "Crime of passion" doesn't seem to be the legal term you want though. Here they call it "irresistible impulse":

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedicti...sanity+Defense

At any rate, my sense of things is that it is actually extremely difficult and rare in the US to succeed with an insanity defense. A lot of people with proven diagnoses of extreme mental illnesses are still judged to understand the concepts of right and wrong.

Curious3141

A bit OT:

Yes, and what's even more amazing is that some idiots will actually reject a successful acquittal under an insanity defence:

10 years psych review vs 40 years hard time. The fact that this imbecile took the chance alone would've qualified him to be labelled insane, IMO.

zoobyshoe

Maybe there should be a profound stupidity defense.

Curious3141

Clearly, we can't, since that would mean over 90% of violent criminals would go scot free.

zoobyshoe

Nah, they wouldn't be set free. You'd have to sequester them for sure.