"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