Clues about the Norway killer's personality

[TerryJ2]

Why am I not surprised? Antisocial ...

Lina Engelsrud, 31, who knew him when they were children, told the The Times newspaper in Britain, which operates behind a paywall, that Breivik was "troublesome."
She said Breivik appeared to be cold and never had any girlfriends.
Engelsrud noted he had liked killing ants, had urinated in a neighbor's shed and used to spit in the basement, The Times reported.

 

[DammitJanet]

Did you notice how handsome he was and how you would never think to worry about him? Again, another instance of how bad guys arent the bums talking to themselves.

 

[InsaneCdn]

But, of course, we're not likely to get the rest of the story... like, what his childhood was really like, and the supports he coulda/woulda/shoulda had but didn't...
Oh, there will be all sorts of stories... but not likely the "real" story.

Nothing condones the behavior.
But as a society, we've got to wake up and start tackling the real (systemic medical, educational and social - not parenting!) issues that so often are behind these twisted minds.
Or we're just going to keep generating more twisted minds.

 

[Steely]

"Engelsrud noted he had liked killing ants, had urinated in a neighbor's shed and used to spit in the basement." The Times reported.

I am sorry but the above 3 things mean nothing. What boy has not done any of the 3? I find it concerning that those are the only things that they could find that were alarming - as I am pretty sure there was a lot more. Instead it puts an ugly slant on boys being boys, and makes many men/boys feel insecure, and many moms paranoid that their son is the next serial killer. It feeds the frenzy, but it does not offer the public knowledge on what a person with a mental illness or personality disorder is really like.

 

[TerryJ2]

Well, I didn't think that killing ants was a big deal, until I remembered a cpl of boys in school who reveled in using a magnifying glass to fry the critters. One boy grew up okay, the other ended up an Anarchist, got arrested, got out, did drugs, and people lost track of him. So, 50/50 on the ant thing.
I got the impression from reading the comments that the behaviors were way out of the norm for Norway, plus, he was too old to be doing that sort of thing. I don't think he was three--I think he was in HS when he did those things.

Also, Norway believes in rehab, no matter what the crime, so they only give maximum prison sentences of 21 yrs, and their prisons are very nice. Here is an example of where the shooter may end up: http://www.5min.com/Video/Norway-Terror-Suspect-Headed-to-Plush-Prison-517133248?icid=maing-grid10|htmlws-main-bb|dl4|sec1_lnk3|8179

FYI.
And, FWIW, he could not have grown up normal. Whatever normal is.
Just. No. Way. He was reported by surviving eyewitnesses as laughing as he shot ... repeatedly. You don't get from point A to point B in one day. Again, he could not have grown up normal. I'd put money on it.

 

[witzend]

Well, I've never urinated in the neighbors shed. But I still kill ants!

 

[muttmeister]

Sometimes I wonder if some people are not just inherintly evil.

Yes, I know that when somebody does something like this we talk about brain chemistry and how they were raised and all of that stuff and there may be some truth to all of that but we also know people with poor brain chemistry and people with childhoods that would make us serial killers who grow up to be perfectly fine. Then there are others who seem to have been OK who just turn out "bad." As far as the stuff you mention, killing ants with a magnifying glass is something I did myself, spitting in somebody's basement an sounds pretty typical for a boy of any age, and urinating in somebody's basement might just be a male thing (if it is a finished basement that people live in , no, but if it is a typical dug-out, crawl-space basement, then yes).

I think we live in an age that tends to over-analyze this kind of person. I understand that it is partly to try to understand it so we can prevent somebody else from taking that path but, really, I don't think we're having much success. Maybe what he needed was an exorcism (I don't really mean that either but it makes as much sense as some of the other stuff).

 

[donna723]

I'm sure this guy is no where near what is considered "normal" and there were probably a lot of other incidents they could have used instead of these, but to me the three things listed here are typical "boy". My brothers spent hours in the back yard with a magnifying glass aiming the beams at ants and trying to set the grass on fire. I gave it a go myself more than once. A child who tortures or kills animals definately has significant issues but somehow I just don't put killing ants in to that same category. And if the little buggers come in to my house I will still kill them, just not one at a time with a magnifying glass!

Boys of a certain age are also very in to spitting. It becomes a habit and they're not always careful where they do it or what they hit. Little boys also seem to develop a fascination with peeing outside at a certain age too, or at least my son did. We lived in the country when he was little and if he was playing outside and having fun he didn't want to stop and go inside so he'd just let it fly where ever he was when the urge hit him. I would get on him about it but he did it anyway. And if there was a shed with an open door, I have no doubt that he would have gone in there and done it so I didn't see him. Heck, his father did it too!