The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest

“She was Dr Teleborian’s patient, and Dr Caldin had not paid her any particular attention except in routine assessments and the like. It wasn’t until she had been there for more than a year that I began to discuss how she could be rehabilitated back into society. I suggested a foster family. I don’t know exactly what went on internally at St Stefan’s, but after about a year Dr Caldin began to take an interest in her.”

“How did that manifest itself?”

“I discovered that he had arrived at an opinion that differed from Dr Teleborian’s,” Palmgren said. “He told me once that he had decided to change the type of care she was receiving. I did not understand until later that he was referring to the strap restraints. Dr Caldin had decided that she should not be restrained. He didn’t think there was any reason for it.”

“So he went against Dr Teleborian’s directives?”

Ekstrom interrupted. “Objection. That’s hearsay.”

“No,” Palmgren said. “Not entirely. I asked for a report on how Lisbeth Salander was supposed to re-enter society. Dr Caldin wrote that report. I still have it today.”

He handed a document to Giannini.

“Can you tell us what it says?”

“It’s a letter from Dr Caldin to me dated October 1992, which is when Lisbeth had been at St Stefan’s for twenty months. Here Dr Caldin expressly writes that, I quote, My decision for the patient not to be restrained or force-fed has also produced the noticeable effect that she is now calm. There is no need for psychoactive drugs. However, the patient is extremely withdrawn and uncommunicative and needs continued supportive therapies. End quote.”

“So he expressly writes that it was his decision,” Giannini said.

“That is correct. It was also Dr Caldin himself who decided that Lisbeth should be able to re-enter society by being placed with a foster family.”

Salander nodded. She remembered Dr Caldin the same way she remembered every detail of her stay at St Stefan’s. She had refused to talk to Dr Caldin… He was a “crazy-doctor,” another man in a white coat who wanted to rootle around in her emotions. But he had been friendly and good-natured. She had sat in his office and listened to him when he explained things to her.

He had seemed hurt when she did not want to speak to him. Finally she had looked him in the eye and explained her decision: I will never ever talk to you or any other crazy-doctor. None of you listen to what I have to say. You can keep me locked up here until I die. That won’t change a thing. I won’t talk to any of you. He had looked at her with surprise and hurt in his eyes. Then he had nodded as if he understood.

“Dr Teleborian,” Giannini said, “we have established that you had Lisbeth Salander committed to a children’s psychiatric clinic. You were the one who furnished the district court with the report, and this report constituted the only basis for the decisions that were made. Is this correct?”

“That is essentially correct. But I think –”

“You’ll have plenty of time to explain what you think. When Lisbeth Salander was about to turn eighteen, you once again interfered in her life and tried to have her locked up in a clinic.”

“This time I wasn’t the one who wrote the forensic medical report –”

“No, it was written by Dr Jesper H. Loderman. And he just happened to be a doctoral candidate at that time. You were his supervisor. So it was your assessments that caused the report to be approved.”

“There’s nothing unethical or incorrect in these reports. They were done according to the proper regulations of my profession.”

“Now Lisbeth Salander is twenty-seven years old, and for the third time we are in a situation in which you are trying to convince a district court that she is mentally ill and must be committed to a secure psychiatric ward.”

Teleborian took a deep breath. Giannini was well prepared. She had surprised him with a number of tricky questions and she had succeeded in distorting his replies. She had not fallen for his charms, and she completely ignored his authority. He was used to having people nod in agreement when he spoke.

How much does she know?

He glanced at Prosecutor Ekstrom but realized that he could expect no help from that quarter. He had to ride out the storm alone.

He reminded himself that, in spite of everything, he was an authority.

It doesn’t matter what she says. It’s my assessment that counts.

Giannini picked up his forensic psychiatric report.

“Let’s take a closer look at your latest report. You expend a great deal of energy analysing Lisbeth Salander’s emotional life. A large part deals with your interpretation of her personality, her behaviour and her sexual habits.”

“In this report I have attempted to give a complete picture.”

“Good. And based on this complete picture you came to the conclusion that Lisbeth suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.”

“I prefer not to restrict myself to a precise diagnosis.”

“But you have not reached this conclusion through conversations with my client, have you?”

“You know very well that your client resolutely refuses to answer questions that I or any other person in authority might put to her. This behaviour is in itself particularly telling. One can conclude that the patient’s paranoid traits have progressed to such an extent that she is literally incapable of having a simple conversation with anyone in authority. She believes that everyone is out to harm her and feels so threatened that she shuts herself inside an impenetrable shell and goes mute.”

“I notice that you’re expressing yourself very carefully. You say, for example, that one can conclude…”

“Yes, that’s right. I am expressing myself carefully. Psychiatry is not an exact science, and I must be careful with my conclusions. At the same time it is not true that we psychiatrists sit around making assumptions that have no basis in fact.”

“What you are being very precise about is protecting yourself. The literal fact is that you have not exchanged one single word with my client since the night of her thirteenth birthday because she has refused to talk to you.”

“Not only to me. She appears unable to have a conversation with any psychiatrist.”

“This means that, as you write here, your conclusions are based on experience and on observations of my client.”

“That’s right.”

“What can you learn by studying a girl who sits on a chair with her arms crossed and refuses to talk to you?”

Teleborian sighed as though he thought it was irksome to have to explain the obvious. He smiled.

“From a patient who sits and says nothing, you can learn only that this is a patient who is good at sitting and saying nothing. Even this is disturbed behaviour, but that’s not what I’m basing my conclusions upon.”

“Later this afternoon I will call upon another psychiatrist. His name is Svante Branden and he’s senior physician at the Institute of Forensic Medicine and a specialist in forensic psychiatry. Do you know him?”

Teleborian felt confident again. He had expected Giannini to call upon another psychiatrist to question his own conclusions. It was a situation for which he was ready, and in which he would be able to dismiss every objection without difficulty. Indeed, it would be easier to handle an academic colleague in a friendly debate than someone like Advokat Giannini who had no inhibitions and was bent on distorting his words. He smiled.

“He is a highly respected and skilled forensic psychiatrist. But you must understand, Fru Giannini, that producing a report of this type is an academic and scientific process. You yourself may disagree with my conclusions, and another psychiatrist may interpret an action or an event in a different way. You may have dissimilar points of view, or perhaps it would be a question purely of how well one doctor or another knows the patient. He might arrive at a very different conclusion about Lisbeth Salander. That is not at all unusual in psychiatry.”

“That’s not why I’m calling him. He has not met or examined Lisbeth Salander, and he will not be making