Ill and evil: how the mentally disturbed can become criminals

Anders Brevik, Josef Fritzl, or the ‘Ice Lady’– are criminals like these pure evil or are they in fact mentally ill? Why is a fanatic legally accountable, while someone delusional is not? Is one innocent and the other guilty? Forensic psychiatrist Thomas Stompe works with ‘mentally disturbed offenders’ who are not held in regular prison, but detained in mental health facilities with special security measures. He recounts fascinating details from cases he has encountered in his work practice as a therapist: the motives that drive the ill offenders; their delusions and crimes; their treatment and their lives ‘after the act’. The stories are disturbing, yet also provoke compassion for the offenders who are humans like you and I.

Ein Thema, drei Blickwinkel: Wovon Poeten, Twitterer und Schluckspechte reden, wenn es ums Zwitschern geht.

The whole world is buzzing and tweeting, in one way or the other, and this is what this book is about. Franz Schuh, a masterful essayist, looks deeper into the existence of boozers and their veering between the utopia of autonomy and the reality of dependency, proofing that suffering and depravation have a great say in who or what humans are. And if Twitter really played a crucial role in the Arab Spring uprisings, there must be more to it than empty tweeting, right? asks Kathrin Passig. And finally, the question on the links between poetry and birds’ twittering is answered by a double expert: Helwig Brunner is both one of the most important young poets in the German-speaking world and a keen ornithologist.

Anachronistic subjects revisited

Thomas Macho leads us through a fascinating philosophical discourse on the boundaries of fairness. On one hand it is said that “all humans are equal”, but on the other, “life is unfair”. Illnesses, disabilities, shortened life spans and causes of death constantly challenge the sociopolitical ideal of equality. What use are comp time, governmental child support and pensions, insurances and building loan agreements if some people die as children while others live to be one hundred years – perhaps even wealthy and full of happiness? The well-known philosopher investigates this and further questions in a world that may be familiar with the term “justice”, but faces a different reality. He questions the solidarity of humans, the base of democracy, and embarks on a search for answers and new paths.