On murderers and intellectuals in a psychopathy spectrum.

Janov's Reflection on

On Murder and Being an Intellectual  (Click to access)

Your Reflections on the psychopathy spectrum, with the psychotic psychopath Anders Breivik at one end and the diabolic manipulator Heinz Alfred Kissinger in the other end, is very interesting. In a review of Christopher Hitchens’s book “The Trial of “Henry” Kissinger”, Richard Stampfle nails the central issue of Henry Kissinger’s criminal conduct: “He draws on the analogy of money owed to a bank  - if you owe a small amount, the problem is yours; if you owe megabucks, it's the bank's problem. Likewise, if you are high on drugs, and kill one person, you have the problem; but if you are high on the arrogance of power, and cloak your actions in "statecraft," and are responsible for the death of millions, it is unlikely that you will be prosecuted, particularly if your country does not lose a war.”

It is an irony of fate that Breivik, who in a murderous rampage executed 77 people,  comes from Norway, a sweet and peaceful country with probably the highest standard of living on Earth. The same country, however,  awarded Kissinger, who with his highly skilled political manipulations had/has caused the death of almost as many people as there are in all of Norway, in 1973 with the Nobel Peace Prize. Breivik, it seems, is fairly easy to label as a psychotic psychopath, and we even say that he could not be reached. (Did anybody try to reach him?) It is almost impossible to say the same about Kissinger. Being a diabolic manipulator of immense dimensions, without performing personal killing, he needs a special category. With respect for political, religious, and intellectual powers, we hide our definitions more carefully and refer to Christopher Hitchens, who really did us a service with his book.

Having been through Primal Therapy during 4 decades, I have many times acted on the border of the psychopathological spectrum in order to arrange and change my life in accordance with prevailing conditions. I was in my mind convinced of what I was doing. However, I was and am the only one who has full transparency of my life before birth and the whole way to what it means no longer to be a prisoner of pain. If,  for example, at some unfortunate time, I had taken a wrong decision for which I could have been legally accused, it would probably have been impossible to use my real reason, to get rid of my imprinted pain, as an evidence or alibi.

As a further evidence how subtle and often unpredictable the conditions for mental recovery are, I would recall that I found my way to Primal Therapy through a Danish psychopath, who knew Raphael Montañez Ortiz, the (destruction) artist in New York who performed absurd notions going back and forth on the stage shouting for his mother. The Dane, “reached” me by recommending me to read “The Primal Scream”. The rest is history...

Jan Johnsson