- The insane are not 'us'

So, what can we gain from declaring the terrorist Anders Behring Breivik mentally disturbed or suffering from a severe personality disorders? Nothing much, I'd say. A psychiatric diagnose does not add anything to our understanding of why he did what he did, since psychiatric diagnoses are stripped of all etiology. However, a diagnose frees us of the need to understand; if he is insane, you can't understand anyway. Finally, and most important, if he is insane, he is certainly not one of ‘us’.

Fra Stefan Björks innlegg The insane are not ‘us’: on normality, psychiatric diagnoses and Norwegian terrorism på bloggen Theoretical Psychology. Björk er PhD-student i psykologi og kjønnsstudier, og han har også en svenskspråklig blogg.