This review presents unique information rarely seen in a description of a politically extreme right wing terrorist. During the trial following the terror acts in Norway on July 22nd 2011, the author, a forensic psychi...This review presents unique information rarely seen in a description of a politically extreme right wing terrorist. During the trial following the terror acts in Norway on July 22nd 2011, the author, a forensic psychiatrist was at the time engaged by a national Norwegian newspaper to comment on the court proceedings. The author has later thoroughly gone through all available background material such as the terrorist’s childhood, relationship to his mother, childhood psychological evaluation, the interviews made by the forensic psychiatrists and information from the police documents. This information is shared in the review. The author also discusses how it was possible for two pairs of court appointed experienced forensic psychiatrists to arrive at completely different conclusions. One pair concluded with insanity due to Paranoid Schizophrenia and the second pair found no signs of psychotic disorder at all and concluded with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The court found the terrorist capable to stand trial and sentenced him to 21 years in preventive detention with 10 years to be served before the possibility to apply for an appeal.展开更多
PHILOSOPHY and PSYCHIATRY are unusual bedfellows.Medical students,already hard pressed for time,are generally thrust into the melee of mental disorders,having spent years focussing on first dissecting and then proddin...PHILOSOPHY and PSYCHIATRY are unusual bedfellows.Medical students,already hard pressed for time,are generally thrust into the melee of mental disorders,having spent years focussing on first dissecting and then prodding human bodies,which too often leaves little room for evaluating theories about human nature,especially with respect to“Intent”or Free Will.The present writer was unusual in that having spent two years in pre-clinical medical training,he devoted a full university year to pursuing philosophical studies in up to 20 different university departments.Thus he entered his teaching hospital with a working knowledge of Hume,Kant,Sartre,Wittgenstein,Buber and others.This is not a clinical paper-it focuses on the reasoning behind psychiatric precepts-so it is perhaps inevitable that today’s prevailing ideology is shown to be grievously wanting-a case of decidedly unphilosophical,even anti-philosophical,medical practice.The notion of there ever being a“scientific”theory of psychiatry has already been discounted in a series of earlier papers-which leaves us with the responsibility for choosing the best possible option,from an infinite number of theoretical models available.The paper provides a whistle-stop tour of how mental disease looks if you start with a confident and consistent look at that pinnacle of human attributes-consciousness.It doesn’t presume to say what consciousness is,but it does assume that it has a function,like every other human asset.Indeed by cutting corners,evaluating what has worked over 60 years in psychiatry,the result is as straightforward a picture of sanity as one can reasonably expect.As such,it leaves the reader with little wriggle room-there is enough clarity here,for you to accept or reject the main proposition.However,since the flaws described tend to be lethal,acceptance entails action.Now read on.展开更多
The purpose of this research is to see the image of New York and London in Charles Dickens＇s writings. In American Notes （1987）, on the surface, the city shows Dickens＇s eye of observation, revealing the dark side...The purpose of this research is to see the image of New York and London in Charles Dickens＇s writings. In American Notes （1987）, on the surface, the city shows Dickens＇s eye of observation, revealing the dark side of the city. However, his writing expresses more than what he sees. In this paper, the author sees New York and London not only as realistic accounts of what things look like, but also a true realization of how Dickens feels about himself, and about the country in which he was situated in. In Oliver Twist （2003）, a New York prison can be linked to Dickens＇s London, representing the darkness of the city with the prison cell and its suggestiveness, including punishment, exclusion, and dehumanization. A New York Asylum reveals the dialectic of order and disorder, in a way which alienation brings out the crisis of humanity. This research shows that New York is an extension of London, in a way which the personal crisis is vividly revealed, as the reader can see in Charles Dickens. A Life （2012）. Through New York, Dickens is more conscious about his London childhood, as spatial representations of London have their own symbolic meanings展开更多
It analyses an excerpt from the post-modern novel Slaughterhouse-Five from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics.Through transitivity analysis and cohesion analysis,it finds that the novelist Kurt Vonnegu...It analyses an excerpt from the post-modern novel Slaughterhouse-Five from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics.Through transitivity analysis and cohesion analysis,it finds that the novelist Kurt Vonnegut uses passive voice and the image of the moon to enhance the passivity and insanity of the anti-hero Bill Pilgrim respectively.Moreover,the fact that there is only one conjunction helps to form the feature of fragmentedness of the postmodern novel.展开更多
Norman Mailer has made a profound analysisof the mad logic of the Vietnam war in his Armiesof the Night, a novel of new journalism whichconcludes the schizophrenic environment of Ameri-can society is at the root of th...Norman Mailer has made a profound analysisof the mad logic of the Vietnam war in his Armiesof the Night, a novel of new journalism whichconcludes the schizophrenic environment of Ameri-can society is at the root of this lunatic war: "He (Norman Mailer) came at last to the saddest conclusion ... that the centre of America might be insane. The country had been living with a controlled, even fiercely controlled, schizophrenia which had been deepening with the years. Perhaps the point had now been passed." (AN. 188)Traditional Christianity as a unifying force inlife has been able for many years to keep somekind of sanity. But it may now be on the decline.展开更多
As if neurosis has become an epidemic disease,so many of the protagonists in American novelsof the 60s are mentally ill in one way or another:Herzog, with his wide-ranging disordered thoughts,is described psychologica...As if neurosis has become an epidemic disease,so many of the protagonists in American novelsof the 60s are mentally ill in one way or another:Herzog, with his wide-ranging disordered thoughts,is described psychologically as depressive andoccasionally paraniod. Yossarian, the absurdhero of Catch-22, is a manci depressive" withfear of conspired death as his main symptom.Oedina in The Crying of Lot 49 sincerely wishes shewere mentally ill after her long mysterious questafter an underground delivery system which mayeither be a real discovery or a paranoid fantasy.With numerous and murderous crimes on record,Howard Campell, a Nazi propagandist in MotherNight, is on the edge of madness and despair.展开更多
文摘This review presents unique information rarely seen in a description of a politically extreme right wing terrorist. During the trial following the terror acts in Norway on July 22nd 2011, the author, a forensic psychiatrist was at the time engaged by a national Norwegian newspaper to comment on the court proceedings. The author has later thoroughly gone through all available background material such as the terrorist’s childhood, relationship to his mother, childhood psychological evaluation, the interviews made by the forensic psychiatrists and information from the police documents. This information is shared in the review. The author also discusses how it was possible for two pairs of court appointed experienced forensic psychiatrists to arrive at completely different conclusions. One pair concluded with insanity due to Paranoid Schizophrenia and the second pair found no signs of psychotic disorder at all and concluded with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The court found the terrorist capable to stand trial and sentenced him to 21 years in preventive detention with 10 years to be served before the possibility to apply for an appeal.
文摘PHILOSOPHY and PSYCHIATRY are unusual bedfellows.Medical students,already hard pressed for time,are generally thrust into the melee of mental disorders,having spent years focussing on first dissecting and then prodding human bodies,which too often leaves little room for evaluating theories about human nature,especially with respect to“Intent”or Free Will.The present writer was unusual in that having spent two years in pre-clinical medical training,he devoted a full university year to pursuing philosophical studies in up to 20 different university departments.Thus he entered his teaching hospital with a working knowledge of Hume,Kant,Sartre,Wittgenstein,Buber and others.This is not a clinical paper-it focuses on the reasoning behind psychiatric precepts-so it is perhaps inevitable that today’s prevailing ideology is shown to be grievously wanting-a case of decidedly unphilosophical,even anti-philosophical,medical practice.The notion of there ever being a“scientific”theory of psychiatry has already been discounted in a series of earlier papers-which leaves us with the responsibility for choosing the best possible option,from an infinite number of theoretical models available.The paper provides a whistle-stop tour of how mental disease looks if you start with a confident and consistent look at that pinnacle of human attributes-consciousness.It doesn’t presume to say what consciousness is,but it does assume that it has a function,like every other human asset.Indeed by cutting corners,evaluating what has worked over 60 years in psychiatry,the result is as straightforward a picture of sanity as one can reasonably expect.As such,it leaves the reader with little wriggle room-there is enough clarity here,for you to accept or reject the main proposition.However,since the flaws described tend to be lethal,acceptance entails action.Now read on.
文摘The purpose of this research is to see the image of New York and London in Charles Dickens＇s writings. In American Notes （1987）, on the surface, the city shows Dickens＇s eye of observation, revealing the dark side of the city. However, his writing expresses more than what he sees. In this paper, the author sees New York and London not only as realistic accounts of what things look like, but also a true realization of how Dickens feels about himself, and about the country in which he was situated in. In Oliver Twist （2003）, a New York prison can be linked to Dickens＇s London, representing the darkness of the city with the prison cell and its suggestiveness, including punishment, exclusion, and dehumanization. A New York Asylum reveals the dialectic of order and disorder, in a way which alienation brings out the crisis of humanity. This research shows that New York is an extension of London, in a way which the personal crisis is vividly revealed, as the reader can see in Charles Dickens. A Life （2012）. Through New York, Dickens is more conscious about his London childhood, as spatial representations of London have their own symbolic meanings
文摘It analyses an excerpt from the post-modern novel Slaughterhouse-Five from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics.Through transitivity analysis and cohesion analysis,it finds that the novelist Kurt Vonnegut uses passive voice and the image of the moon to enhance the passivity and insanity of the anti-hero Bill Pilgrim respectively.Moreover,the fact that there is only one conjunction helps to form the feature of fragmentedness of the postmodern novel.
文摘Norman Mailer has made a profound analysisof the mad logic of the Vietnam war in his Armiesof the Night, a novel of new journalism whichconcludes the schizophrenic environment of Ameri-can society is at the root of this lunatic war: "He (Norman Mailer) came at last to the saddest conclusion ... that the centre of America might be insane. The country had been living with a controlled, even fiercely controlled, schizophrenia which had been deepening with the years. Perhaps the point had now been passed." (AN. 188)Traditional Christianity as a unifying force inlife has been able for many years to keep somekind of sanity. But it may now be on the decline.
文摘As if neurosis has become an epidemic disease,so many of the protagonists in American novelsof the 60s are mentally ill in one way or another:Herzog, with his wide-ranging disordered thoughts,is described psychologically as depressive andoccasionally paraniod. Yossarian, the absurdhero of Catch-22, is a manci depressive" withfear of conspired death as his main symptom.Oedina in The Crying of Lot 49 sincerely wishes shewere mentally ill after her long mysterious questafter an underground delivery system which mayeither be a real discovery or a paranoid fantasy.With numerous and murderous crimes on record,Howard Campell, a Nazi propagandist in MotherNight, is on the edge of madness and despair.
