Anders Breivik

I assume you know who Anders is so I will begin without introducing him. Here I have some questions going through my mind about Anders.

Was Anders intelligent?

Was he emotionally intelligent?

Was he emotionally abused?

Was he emotionally neglected"

Were his emotional needs met?

Was he successful?

Because I believe an accurate understanding of the concept of true emotional intelligence is vitally important to humanity I believe is important to ask this also:

Would Anders Breivik meet the criteria for an emotionally intelligent person according to the common definitions of emotional intelligence?

These common definitions often include - ability to delay gratification, ability to control emotions, and ability to motivate oneself.

So we might ask these additional questions:

- Was he able to delay gratification?

- Was he able to control his emotions?

- Was he self-motivated?

To help us answer, I offer you these facts,

- According to his manifesto he had been working on his "operation" for 9 years

- According to his manifesto he used meditation to de-sensitize himself and stay focused.

- His manifesto gives evidence that he was very self-motivated, and we see no profit motive or other external reward for his behavior.

Many people advise us to be goal oriented and focused. So I ask:

Was Anders goal-oriented?

Was Anders focussed?

Then I would ask:

Was he successful in achieving his goal?

Would we call him a success or a good example of a successful person?

Obviously, my point is that most of us would not consider Anders to be either emotionally intelligent or a good example of a successful person. But he comes so close to meeting the commonly accepted, and usually unquestioned, criteria for these labels that I suggest we must seriously think about how we define our terms, and about what kind of people we really want the young people of the world to strive to become.

S. Hein
May 2, 2012
Ubon Ratchathanni, Thailand

Note - We might ask if what Anders did was "effective," given that one of his mail goals was to draw attention to his cause.

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See also "success"

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"Anders Breivik is a product of his environment"

I found 0 results.

This reminds me that we are not asking the right questions, not looking in the right direction and not searching for the right things.

S. Hein
Ubon Ratchathanni, Thailand

He was analysed in 1983 when his mum could not cope after his dad walked out in Oslo, Norway.

Psychiatrists concluded that the troubled little boy’s smile masked mental illness.

That proved chillingly accurate 28 years later when he massacred 77 in a gun and bomb rampage in Norway.

One of the doctors said yesterday: “Much of what we see in him today is visible here, not least in the disarming smile he hides his feelings behind.

“He had difficulty expressing himself emotionally. He lacked light, joy and the pleasure of playing with others.

“We feared he would develop serious psychopathology, which may indicate mental illness. Unfortunately we were right — but we never imagined that one day he would become a mass murderer.”

Breivik’s smile at his Oslo trial said: “He uses it to protect himself from feeling emotions. That indicates serious illness.

I persoally would like to see Anders be given the BarOn EQi test and the Mayer Salovey Caruso MSCEIT tests to see how he scores. I would not be at all suprised to see him score highly on one or both.

Also, I would assume that Anders would score higly on a standard IQ test. So what this says to me is that it would help humanity considerably if we really had some form of test which could help us prevent such needless loss and suffering. Perhaps something like the "mom test" would have helped.... It is with sadness that I suggest that, but also with, may I say?... deadly seriousness.