A psychopath is not clinically insane. He is quite rational, often more rational and lucid than most people. He is able to stay calmly focused on his goals over a long period of time. His behavior is not erratic or capricious.
His reasoning and methodology are not impaired, but that does not mean he is not mentally ill. What makes the psychopath abnormal are his goals, which are to varying degrees violent, destructive, depraved, monstrous, and inhuman. His focused lucidity is directed towards deeds that lie beyond the pale of our common humanity.
The psychopath’s world contains nothing but himself, and all his actions are informed by a grandiosity that culminates in massive, murderous, bloodthirsty deeds that will glorify him forever in history, as presented on the stage of his own mind.
Dr. Michael Welner is a Canadian forensic psychiatrist, and in the video below he discusses the non-insanity of Anders Behring Breivik. He doesn’t employ the terms “psychopath” or “psychopathy”, but his take on the mind of the killer is similar.
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
Additional thoughts from Dymphna:
Phyllis Chesler, back on Pajamas Media (at least for this essay), wades into swamp to examine the boatload of lies being hauled around by the MSM and their allies. These crafted “facts” regarding the Norwegian monster — and his purported evil helpers among the American Counterjihad — will simply become the “narrative” they sail upon until the whole thing sinks of its own weight.
By then, they’ll be on to some other atrocity, something else for which the vastrightwingconspiracy is to blame.
Ms. Chesler’s assessment regarding five of the more egregious falsehoods which have been launched so far (and are beginning to take on barnacles under the water line) is astute.
Number Four Lie is partially excerpted here, but do read the others. Her comparison of the monster and Julian Assange is of particular interest since he, too, obviously thirsted for revenge.
The 5 Biggest Lies Told about Oslo Shooter Anders Breivik
The discussion about the Norway massacre has been corrupted with politicized falsehoods and wishful thinking
[…]
#4 [Manufactured “Truth”] Breivik Is Crazy.
Men kill, men steal, men torture, men concoct evil plots — men run concentration camps — and, at the same time, seem perfectly “normal,” “ordinary.” They are logical, lucid, functional, and, in the case of certain Nazis, also love music, their families, their pets. Men — women too, but in different ways — who commit cruel and evil deeds are nevertheless members of the human race. Animals do not behave this way.
Breivik got up every day, washed, ate, got dressed, and “went to work.” For years, he worked as an equity trader, as the director of a software company, and as a farmer. His real “work” consisted of planning this massacre. He saved money. He read books and articles. He wrote a (partly plagiarized) manifesto that is rather well written.
Unlike the Unabomber, Breivik was not a loner. He got out. He socialized. True, he still lived at home with his mother…
Breivik knew and probably still knows right from wrong. He knew that he was making a political statement, a horrendously bloody political statement, one that in his view was meant to save Norway from destruction at the hands of barbarian invaders — an act that was perhaps meant to teach appeasement-minded Norwegian leaders that violence now awaits them on either side.
As a former forensic psychologist and as someone who has been consulted by lawyers over the years many times, in my expert opinion (one rendered from afar), Breivik is more than sane enough to stand trial. He is also a violent, evil, sociopathic man. Men who rape their children, men who beat their wives, rapists in general, tend to pass most mental health tests and are spookily indistinguishable from the rest of the population.
Breivik does not hear voices, he has not repeatedly attempted suicide, he is not unwashed, unshaven; he probably eats. Just today, his lawyer said that Breivik takes drugs to “stay strong, efficient, and awake.” If these drugs include amphetamines and steroids, they could certainly put him at a dangerous remove from caring about the consequences of his actions…
Two comments stood out particularly:
Jeff Z says:
What this filthy murderer accomplished was to incite the most vicious attacks by elites and the mainstream media on the courageous men and women who place their lives on the line to warn of the terrible dangers of Islam. Was this the murderer’s real goal?”
And, immediately after him, is L.R.:
The “Anti-Jihad Bloggers and Intellectuals are at fault” meme is of a part with the “Tea Baggers (sic) are Racists” and “Zionists are Nazis” memes, the desperate slogans of intellectually exhausted partisans forced to rely on hatred to get them through complicated events they have lost the emotional capacity and mental agility to comprehend...
