Psychology Essay Example

Analysing The Psychopathology Of Anders Breivik And The 22/07/11 Oslo/Utoya Mass Killings

The life of Anders Behring Breivik

Anders Behring Breivik was born in Oslo Norway on February 13^th 1979, and was responsible for the Utoya Mass Killing Incident on July 22^nd 2011. Breivik lived his entire life with his mother, who had sole custody over him since childhood. At the age of 4, two reports were filed by social services stating that Breivik should be removed from the care of his mother over concerns regarding both his and her mental health. Finn Sk rderud, a Norwegian psychotherapist working for the Statens Senter for Barne- og Ungdomspsykiatri at the time, made note of Breivik s facial expressions, namely his smile, not properly reflecting his emotions. Later reports by the same team, revealed in court after the attack, stated that Breivik s mother sexually assaulted him, beat him, and frequently told him that she wished him dead (Christensen, 2013). Alley et al (2014) found that this type of abuse places victims at a higher vulnerability to enacting mass or serial homicide in later life. As Breivik aged, he became fixated upon the principles of white Christian ethnonationalism and other far-right extreme ideologies, as well as firearms and the military. He would frequent white-supremacist forums on websites like 4chan and 8chan, interacting with other white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, and Nazi sympathisers, becoming more radicalised throughout his late teens (Christensen, 2013).

Breivik s self-reported motivations for the attack are well documented online, through forum interactions and his manifestos a succinct 12-minute video and a longer written account, both titled 2083 A Declaration Of European Independence . A white ethnonationalist, Breivik believed European countries should operate on a conservative nationalism model, like Japan or North Korea . He believed racial mixing was unpatriotic, as it would lead to the diluting of national identity and traditions which he attributed as being white and Christian in European countries. This distorted idea of European culture, in his mind, needed protecting from the diluting influence of multiculturalism (VonBr mssen, 2013).

Breivik incorporated a host of conspiracy theories like this into his ideology, but none more so than his belief that Islam was taking over Europe and diminishing western values with the complicity of the Cultural Marxists of left-wing parties. Cultural Marxism is a Nazi conspiracy theory that Jewish Communists are attempting to ruin western culture by diminishing its values with progressive art, music, views, and politics (Jackson, 2014). Breivik s writings make it clear that he saw himself and his country as victims of these machinations, a mentality of victimhood shared commonly amongst terrorists (Wilson, 2020). Alongside these white ethnonationalist and Nazi sympathies, Breivik s ideology was aligned closely with the online alt-right frequently pontificating about feminism, LGBT rights, and video gaming in his manifesto and online accounts (Walton, 2012). These online interactions also acted as echo chambers , cutting Breivik off from differing opinion and essentially acting to indoctrinate him further into the extreme right. Presence in these echo chambers is associated with a higher risk of extreme views and violent expression thereof (Whittaker, 2020). Horgan et al (2016) found that 16% of mass killers enact their attack against a group, society, or representative thereof that they feel grievanced by. In keeping with these findings, Breivik began planning his attack as a retaliation against a government that he believed had allowed multiculturalism to pollute the ethnic purity of his country and continent.

The July 22^nd Attacks

Breivik claimed to have been planning since 2002 during his interrogation, which his manifesto backs up with diary-like entries dating back 9 years chronicling his acquisition of the materials he used in his attack. On July 22^nd 2011, Breivik began his attack by detonating an ammonium nitrate fertiliser bomb at 15:25pm in the Regjeringskvartalet district of Oslo, killing 8, in an attempt to assassinate as many government officials as possible. Approximately an hour and a half this, posing as a police officer, Breivik travelled to Utoya Island. Using a legally acquired Ruger mini-14 and a Glock 34, both semi-automatic weapons, Breivik killed 69 members of The Workers Youth League. Breivik believed these young labour party supporters would be the Cultural Marxists of the future (Borchgrevink, 2013). Firing began indiscriminately, reflecting the victim selection. Breivik hoped to target former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland who was giving a speech at the island that day, but in her absence Breivik focused on the greater victim pool of the Workers Youth League (Hemmingby Bj rgo, 2016). Victims were taunted as they ran with threats of "You are going to die today Marxists , displaying Breivik s scapegoating of the victims, as posited by Eide (2012). However, targets of Utoya Island were likely chosen as a victim pool not only because they acted as a stand-in for the left wing as a whole, but also because they would all be unarmed and police intervention would take a long time to arrive. This, alongside the use of hollow-point bullets and military-execution-styled tactics, reflected Breivik s agenda to cause maximum carnage and casualties a common strategy used amongst ideological terrorists to spread their agenda through media attention (Hemmingby Bj rgo, 2018). Local police were notified of the shooting almost immediately after it began, but were unable to requisition a helicopter at short notice. An armed response unit did not get to the island until an hour after the initial report was filed, and coastal dwelling civilians had to begin rescue efforts alone. Upon the arrival of Police Tactical Unit Delta, at approximately 18:25, Anders Breivik surrendered after killing 77 and wounding 319 (Borchgrevink, 2013). Breivik himself called emergency services to surrender twice before Delta arrived, demonstrating the eagerness to be taken alive that he displayed in his writings. From planning to end, Breivik s crime fits in with Horgan s 2016 cognitive model of mass killings, going through the four phases described therein with the preparation phase of the model echoing Breivik s self-described preparation perfectly.

Analysis of Anders Breivik.

Narratives of evil permeated reporting of mass killings for decades, however media and academic focus has shifted towards mental health in recent years (McGinty, 2013). As a lone-actor terrorist, Breivik is 13.49 times more likely to have a mental illness, as stated by Corner Gill (2014). As such, Oslo District Court moved to have him analysed by several teams of psychologists. During this period, several conflicting diagnoses were reached. An initial diagnosis of schizophrenia was posited by Husby and S rheim (2011), citing irrational thoughts as evidence of psychosis, when observed outside of a political context . This diagnosis however was later dispelled by a second analysis by Aspaas and T rrissen (2011), citing that Breivik s grandiose delusions seemed more akin to a delusional narcissism than anything psychotic a position further enforced by Rahman et al s (2016) assertion that Breivik s views were extreme overvalued beliefs as opposed to psychotic delusions. This second team further cited that Breivik expressed no other schizophrenic tendencies apart from a flat cold affect to his speech he expressed no other delusions apart from his hero complex and he was able to organise his thoughts enough to plan his attack, make propaganda, and speak to his defence in court. These behaviours seem to disprove the assertion that Breivik was psychotic. As such, the second psychoanalysis yielded a more accurate, but not entirely undebatable, diagnosis a combination of Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD) and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), which are both defined as Axis II Cluster B Personality Disorders in the DSM-V.

NPD is a disorder characterised by an inflated sense of importance, a sense of entitlement to excessive attention and admiration, and a lack of empathy (Pincus Lukowitsky, 2010). These are behaviours exemplified in many aspects of Breivik s life. As aforementioned, Brievik saw himself as a hero of western values that he saw as being tarnished, going as far as to demand a medal at his pre-trial hearing for his service to his country . (CNN, February 7th, 2012). These self-aggrandising beliefs were present throughout his legacy documents. Groopman Cooper (2006) lists an oversensitive temperament, unreliable caregiving, and childhood abuse as risk factors for personality disorders like NPD all of which are present in Breivik s case. Lambe et al (2016) also stated that narcissists are more likely to exhibit violent behaviour. These findings give credence to Breivik s NPD diagnosis, particularly when viewed in tandem with his pre-offense post-offence behaviour.

In contrast, the ASPD diagnosis has some supporting and some contradicting evidence. Breivik did display some anti-social behaviour as defined by Widiger Costa (2012), such as the narcissistic affect, inability to view the world from the perspective of others, and lacking empathy. Additionally, Breivik refused to plead guilty and take criminal responsibility for his actions, a common behaviour amongst psychopaths (DeLisi et al, 2003). However, Breivik also displayed several behaviours that are antithetical to an ASPD diagnosis. Breivik consistently fought back against his legal team s advice of an insanity plea and described his first court diagnosis as ludicrous and an ultimate humiliation in a letter to Norwegian media companies (Rueters, 2012). Whilst this can be interpreted as Breivik s narcissism, or a desire to not have his belief system equated with insanity, it should be observed that in doing so he purposefully neglected to take advantage of an opportunity to manipulate the court into a less harsh sentence. A disposition towards manipulation is a common feature of ASPD diagnostic models, ergo this is unlikely to be something that somebody with ASPD would do (Hofer, 1989). Additionally, Breivik cried in court over his own propaganda video, displaying an emotional regulation rarely seen in psychopaths. The emotional weight that Breivik felt towards his country and Europe bordered on the obsessive. This obsessive behaviour, and Breivik s deviations from ASPD diagnosis criteria, can be explained by the differential diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This also accounts for the flatness of Brievik s speech, the incongruity of his facial expressions, his deviant behaviour in childhood, and his inability to properly regulate his impulses (Seltzer et al, 2003). Additionally, Allely Faccini (2017) found that autistic individuals are at a higher risk of radicalisation and committing acts of lone wolf terrorism. The diagnosis of autism in Breivik s case is also supported by the testimony of expert witness Professor Ulrik Malt, who cited autism as a possible explanation for some of Brievik s behaviour (Borchgrevink, 2013).

Whilst mental illness is often regarded by the media as being the root cause of mass killings, this is a reductionist fallacy likely used to diminish the perceived culpability of relaxed gun control laws or certain political ideologies (Pryal, 2014). Outside of the framework of psychopathology, there are several theories pertaining to mass killings that can be applied to the Utoya incident.

Linking in with Breivik s NPD diagnosis, Ahktar s Narcissistic Rage Theory (1999), a theory that concerns domestic terrorism, applies to Breivik more-so than Bushman s theory of Narcissistic Injury (2017), which is the more commonly used Narcissism Theory for Mass Killers. Whilst the latter theory posits that specific instances of personal humiliation drive the narcissistic individual to violent retribution the former theory posits that perceived oppression or slights against a narcissistic individual or their aligned group causes them to lash out violently at the perpetrators. This is more applicable to Breivik as he saw the group he had aligned himself with, white ethno-nationalists, as being damaged by multiculturalism caused by the Norwegian Labour Party lashing out accordingly.

Breivik also fits several researched typologies of mass killer. Eysenck s table of personality types (1964) places Breivik firmly into the emotionally unstable Choleric quadrant, a common quadrant for mass killers along with the Melancholic quadrant. Breivik can also be considered a fame-seeking mass killer, displaying the sense victimisation, misplaced grandiosity, focus on casualties, and desire for media attention that Lankford (2016) attributes to mass killers of that kind. This theory aligns itself well with Breivik s manifesto-reported tactic of causing maximum carnage , and surrendering to a lengthy public trial, to further publicly propagate his ideology. Furthermore, Knoll (2010) describes a Pseudocommando typology, characterised by politically charged threats, intense planning over a long period of time, a powerful arsenal, militant shooting practices, and revenge fantasies. This fits Breivik s behaviour closely, however does deviate in its prediction of a Pseudocommando as a suicidal individual with no exit plan whereas Breivik surrendered when authorities arrived, as was the plan detailed in his legacy documents.

The exact nature of Breivik s legacy documents also allows room for analysis. O Toole (2000) described a process by which mass killers will intentionally or unintentionally reveal clues to feelings, thoughts, fantasies, attitudes or intentions that may signal an impending violent act , Leakage. This process can be seen in Breivik s writings and online interactions, through which he frequently expressed his extreme views and made vague allusions to his attack plans (Meloy et al, 2016). The frequency of these online interactions over the 9-year planning period is also in keeping with previous research, as Craun, Silver, and Simons (2018) noted that longer planning times were associated with more leakage.

However, amongst the many theories that can be applied to Breivik, General Strain Theory is the most singularly inclusive explanation for his behaviour Madore (2019) having found that General Strain Theory could explain Breivik s descent into terrorism. The personal strains of social isolation and childhood abuse, the mental strains of psychological illness, and the perceived wider strains multiculturalism and progressivism altering his social position, may have spurred Breivik to a terrorist mindset creating the perfect storm of a terrorist, as described by Ranstorp (2013). This theory can be considered more holistic than others, and it integrates several areas of Breivik s motivation into one consolidated theory. It is further accredited by its easy theoretical application to other similar mass killing incidents, such as the New Zealand Christchurch mosque attacks (Madore, 2019).

Aftermath

Brenton Tarrant, the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque attacks, cited Breivik as an inspiration in his legacy documents and was further linked to Breivik through his methods and motivations (Wojtasik, 2020). As posed in Meindl and Ivy s model of shooter contagion, the abundance of materials that Breivik left behind, combined with the lethality of the incident, contributed to media attention and veneration amongst his ethnonationalist peers. As such, several subsequent mass shootings have been linked to this one. Vojtech Mlynek and Brunon Kwiecien each attempted similar attacks within a year of Breivik s, and Philip Manshaus conducted the Oslo B rum Mosque Shooting in 2019. All three killers cited Breivik as an inspiration to varying degrees (Hartleb, 2020). These killings were carried out in similar fashion, with similar self-reported ethnonationalist motivations, to Breivik s crime in keeping with Flanders 1968 behavioural imitation model. Whilst Breivik was not verifiably inspired by a recent incident himself, he is credited amongst white ethnonationalists as being the inciting catalyst for these later killings achieving a folk-hero-like status amongst groups of the like-minded white-ethnonationalists online (Turner Graham, 2014) and in real life (Enstad, 2015).

Up until Breivik and those he inspired, Norway had not seen a spate of gun violence since the second world war (Borchgrevink, 2013), despite Norway s widespread gun ownership. This seems to contradict the assertion that the rigidity of gun laws correlates to incidents of mass shooting which Hackenberry (2019) attributes to peaceful Norwegian culture, healthy citizen/government relationship, and widespread standardised education. These three factors are noticeably missing in countries with high rates of gun violence, such as the USA, further supporting Hackenberry.

It s clear that Breivik s infamy, both at the time of his trial and since, permeates Norwegian culture. A report published in DeGraff et al (2013) found that most Norwegians felt satisfied with the trial and its results, and found it essential to the period of national mourning that followed the attack. The report also noted that the public saw the trial as a victory for the democratic and progressive values of Norway, and hoped it would serve as a clear message to others with Breivik s views. However, The Gj rv Report (2012), commissioned by the Norwegian parliament, concluded that several security measures could have been implemented to prevent or reduce the severity of the attack such as faster emergency service response, better police preparation, adequate gun control, and broader investigations regarding far-right terror threats. These suggestions were echoed in later independent reports, such as Meyer (2013). In response, vast police and security reform was enacted, and the Ruger Mini-14 firearm was banned. Since the attack and subsequent policy changes, Norway has suffered an average of only 30 murders per year, with an average of only one-tenth being gun related (Statista Research Department, 2020).

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