05-12-2014, 09:17 AM
WHAT'S "REASONABLE" FOR OTHERS SHOULD NOT APPLY TO OSCAR PISTORIUS -- SO SAYS THE DEFENSE PSYCHIATRIST
Snip:
Pistorius would have experienced the amputation of both of his legs below the knee as a "traumatic assault" because he was too young to speak or understand what was happening to him, Dr. Meryl Vorster said in court.
Oscar Pistorius suffers an anxiety disorder stemming from his double amputation as an infant and his unstable parents.
His parents then put pressure on him to appear normal, and his mother abused alcohol at times after she and Pistorius' father divorced, she said.
She raised him and his siblings "to see their external environment as threatening," and "added to the anxiety," Vorster said.
Pistorius earlier testified that "Everything I learnt in life, I learned from her."
The defense is trying to show that Pistorius made a reasonable mistake and responded reasonably on the night he killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp
Because of his disability, she said, when he faces a fight-or-flight situation, he cannot flee, and so his instinct is to fight, she said.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel then pressed the psychiatrist on whether Pistorius was mentally ill and whether he could distinguish right from wrong.
The psychiatrist said he could. Many people have general anxiety disorder, and it does not imply that one has lost touch with reality, she said..
Ref: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/12/world/...?hpt=hp_t3
Snip:
Pistorius would have experienced the amputation of both of his legs below the knee as a "traumatic assault" because he was too young to speak or understand what was happening to him, Dr. Meryl Vorster said in court.
Oscar Pistorius suffers an anxiety disorder stemming from his double amputation as an infant and his unstable parents.
His parents then put pressure on him to appear normal, and his mother abused alcohol at times after she and Pistorius' father divorced, she said.
She raised him and his siblings "to see their external environment as threatening," and "added to the anxiety," Vorster said.
Pistorius earlier testified that "Everything I learnt in life, I learned from her."
The defense is trying to show that Pistorius made a reasonable mistake and responded reasonably on the night he killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp
Because of his disability, she said, when he faces a fight-or-flight situation, he cannot flee, and so his instinct is to fight, she said.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel then pressed the psychiatrist on whether Pistorius was mentally ill and whether he could distinguish right from wrong.
The psychiatrist said he could. Many people have general anxiety disorder, and it does not imply that one has lost touch with reality, she said..
Ref: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/12/world/...?hpt=hp_t3