Norway News: Breivik psychiatric report published by Norway tabloid

MALMO, Sweden — Norway’s leading tabloid newspaper, Verdens Gang, has published the full texts of four official psychiatric reports on Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right extremist who killed 77 people last July, revealing alarming new details about Breivik’s belief that his attacks had achieved their objectives, his comfortable life in prison, and his close links to Britain's anti-Islamic movement.

The main details of the official reports, which ruled that Breivik was insane, were widely reported last month.

But the report by Dr Randi Rosenqvist for the Ila prison, where Breivik is being held, reveals alarming new details.

It was Rosenqvist’s opinion that Breivik was not psychotic which led the Olso court to order a further assessment on Friday.

The psychiatrist links Breivik’s “deviant statements” to his total absorption in an anti-Islamic movement, based largely in the UK, likening his state of mind to that of a brainwashed cult member.

“I interpret his deviant statements as an expression of an extreme ideology, not as a psychotic view of reality,” she writes. “He has built a lot of his ideology on the British, or rather English, movement, and has not sought contact with Norwegians of the same ideology.”

She said that she believed that Breivik would only become difficult for prison authorities to manage if his world view began to crumble.

"If his view of the world ruptured or broke apart, its likely that he would become manic, psychotic, and suffer increased megalomania. He will become physically anxious or more demanding, he may stop sleeping normally and he might not be seen as calm or polite."

According to Rosenqvist, the mass-killer compared his life in prison to a “kindergarten,” where “he can ring on a bell to get snus [smokeless tobacco] or cigarettes.”

He spends his time weight-training, reading a series of books on the history of different countries in the world, playing a computer game where he builds a city, and watching films on DVD.

After her most recent on 19 December, Dr Rosenqvist notes Breivik's “humorous” reaction to learning that he had been classed as schizophrenic.

“I asked what he thought about the investigators' conclusions. He took these almost in a humorous way and said he didn't recognize himself at all,” she writes.

At the December meeting, Breivik told Dr Rosenqvist that he had no regrets about setting off a bomb that killed eight people in Oslo's government district, and then opening fire at the summer camp of the governing Labor Party's youth wing, killing another 69.

“He says that Norway was different before 22 July, and that he hoped that the conflicts in society were more clear now,” she wrote. “He hoped that a revolution would come earlier. A revolution that we could win.”

Verdens Gang’s editor, Torry Pedersen, decided to publish despite a warning from police that frequent press leaks were harming the investigation.

“It is not up to you or me to decide whether Anders Behring was insane, but it is important that the public has confidence in the processes that lead to that decision in court,” he wrote. “That is why we give our readers access to this material.”