Anders Behring Breivik, master of life and death: Psychodynamics and political ideology in an act of terrorism

Abstract

According to Anders Behring Breivik himself, his massacre of 77 innocent people on July 22, 2011 in Norway was motivated by ideology: Breivik sees himself as being morally justified to save Europe from multiculturalism and feminism. What makes a person join such an ideology? This paper argues that the demonization of Muslims and Eurabia fits into a psychologically threatened universe and a murderous lust for revenge. Against the background of different sources (the ideological “manifesto,” forensic reports, psychiatric assessment of the mother–son relationship in Breivik’s childhood, and interview material), the mass-murderer’s attitudes are understood as expressing inner dynamic forces. Hypotheses about Breivik’s personality and unconscious motivation are discussed using the concepts of splitting and personal myth and Oedipal catastrophe. The paper argues that the relationship between unconscious motives and ideology must be regarded as dialectical: the terrorist’s actions are founded in a subjective war scenario, expressing personally motivated hatred and vindictiveness, being displaced and projected, and justified with reference to a war “out there.” Thus, the terrorist seeks an ideology that fits unconscious intentions. The ideology, however, is indispensable to legitimate actions.

Key words:

• Anders Breivik
• lone terrorist
• ideology
• applied psychoanalysis
• personal myth
• splitting
• false self

Notes

1 Gro Harlem Brundtland was Norway's first female prime minister (for three periods: 1981, 1986–1989, and 1990–1996), and also the youngest person ever appointed to the role. She was then Director-General of the World Health Organization (1998–2003). “Gro” (Norwegians called her by her first name) was experienced as a kind of “mother” of the nation (also considered a “mother of sustainability”). Her government was responsible for legislation assuring women's rights and progressive family policies. Her cabinet of eight women and nine men represented the highest level of gender equality ever seen.

2 Just after 22 July, Hagtvet, in presenting his new book on ideology and terror (Hagtvet, Sørensen, & Steine, 2011) on Norwegian radio, pointed out how Breivik “thinks in terms of centuries, stigmatizes his enemies and sees himself as morally justified to save Europe”.

3 In a broader context, myths have metaphysical, cosmological, sociological, and psychological functions (Campbell, 1970), supplying answers to certain irreducible psychological problems inherent in the biology of our species. The myths of a society contain images and models that the individual can strive toward, serving as collective identity solutions, representing “instruments of socialization” (Arlow, 1961, p. 379; Bruner, 1960).

4 Psychoanalysts since the 1930s have tried to analyze the authoritarian, destructive ideologies that came to the fore in the twentieth century – Nazism and fascism (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Lewinson, & Sanford, 1950; Fromm, 1941; Fromm, Horkheimer, Mayer, & Marcuse, 1936; Reich, 1933).

5 Nazism contained ideas about the nation and the Aryan “Volk” (people); fundamentalist Islam has the conception of ummah; radical right-wing ideologies have the idea of a homogeneous Europe restraining Eurabia.

6 Within Nazi ideology, Jews became “parasites” and scroungers attaching themselves as leeches to the “ethnic body” (Volkskörper). Within radical right-wing ideologies of today, Muslims are the carrier of impurity.

7 For an analysis of the ”arousal addiction” of Internet games (and pornography), see Zimbardo & Coulombe (2011).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Siri Erika Gullestad

Siri Erika Gullestad, professor and doctor of philosophy, is a member of the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway.