Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Personality disorder of Austrian father: controlling, ruling by fear, and able to ignore his own wrongdoing

Father Pleads Guilty in Incest Case
By VERONIKA OLEKSYN
AP
March 18, 2009

In a stunning turn of events, an Austrian on trial for imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children pleaded guilty Wednesday to all charges against him — including negligent homicide — after hearing his daughter's heart-wrenching testimony....

A psychiatrist, meanwhile, told the court Wednesday that [Josef]Fritzl had a very serious personality disorder and would still pose a threat even at his advanced age if freed. Psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner recommended that Fritzl serve out his sentence in a psychiatric ward.
...Kastner, the psychiatrist who met with Fritzl several times and put together a psychological profile for the court, said the Austrian needed to control people. She said Fritzl had an ability to block out his crimes but knew what he was doing was wrong, acknowledging he had a guilty conscience when he went to bed at night and when he woke up in the morning.
"Fritzl is guilty for what he did," she said.
Fritzl had testified earlier this week that he had a difficult childhood and a bad relationship with his mother.
"The climate in his parent's house was marked by fear," Kastner said...

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