AN IMPORTANT BOOK AND UPCOMING SCIENTIFIC MEETING WITH THE AUTHOR AND SOUTH AFRICA'S LEADING EXPERT IN SLEEP DISORDERS

Near the end of her detailed Judgement in the Oscar Pistorius trial, Judge Masipa wrote that there were several important things in Pistorius’ testimony that made no sense. She listed 4 of them. These were basically the same issues that Bail Magistrate Nair had underscored as making no sense to him months earlier. Judge Masipa stated that the court must make sense of all the evidence. Although she could not make sense of these important matters, she nonetheless felt she had to sentence Pistorius for culpable homicide. 

When I saw those 4 points, they immediately made sense to me, as a psychologist. There seemed to be considerable likelihood that Oscar would never have gone anywhere near that bathroom, let alone discharged his pistol, had he not been in a simultaneous sleep-wake state (parasomnia). As Judge Masipa stated, Oscar would surely have first asked Reeva whether she had heard a sound in the bathroom. When she did not answer, he would have spoken again, given her a shake, then realized she was not in the bed, hence it was surely her in the bathroom. Similarly when he told her to get down on the floor and call the police, when she said nothing, he would have made sure she heard, then would have realized she was the one in the bathroom. Finally, when he was screaming at the supposed intruders in the bathroom to leave, Reeva would have responded that it was just her in the stall and Pistorius would have calmed down and returned to bed. All these things that so perplexed the Judge and Bail Magistrate can be usefully understood in terms of the hypothesis that while parts of Pistorius' brain were very awake, other parts were still asleep (areas related to aspects of reasoning, judgement, reality testing, perception, etc.). Had Pistorius' brain been fully awake, he would have done all the things the Bail Magistrate and Judge expected. No shooting would have occurred. This parasomnia hypothesis connects all the dots. Nothing else has done so. If this idea stands up to legal and sleep specialist scrutiny (It has been endorsed by 3 of the world's leading experts in sleep disorders), then Pistorius would no longer be deemed criminally responsible. If he appealed to the court based upon this hypothesis, his criminal record might be removed. He would then no longer be referred to as murderer or disgraced Olympic athlete. He would be seen as a tragic figure who suffered from parasomnia, rather than as a criminal. 

Having come across Judge Masipa’s underscoring of these profound enigmas, I felt it was my ethical responsibility to present these ideas. What I originally conceived as an article seemed to require a lengthier treatment, so it became a book. 

This book will fascinate and astound anyone interested in the study of sleep and dreams and their disorders. 

 Synopsis:

Just when the world thought Oscar Pistorius' meteoric rise to Olympic glory and international celebrity had terminated abysmally in prison, Brent Willock's scientific perspective reopens this gripping narrative for an astonishing re-view.

Olympian Oscar Pistorius' spectacular assent to fame ground to a screeching halt in the wee hours of Valentine's Day, 2013. Hearing a sound emanating from his bathroom, he grabbed his pistol and he stumbled to the washroom, screaming at the intruders to leave. Fearing someone was about to emerge to harm him and his girlfriend, Reeva, he fired four bullets into the bathroom. Soon he realized he had killed his lover. Horrified, he summoned the authorities. The investigating detective believed this was yet another case of an escalating argument where a man murdered his partner. World opinion is split. Some believe Oscar. Others are convinced he committed a despicable crime of passion.

Distinguished clinical psychologist Brent Willock brings an entirely new perspective to bear on these horrific events: namely, that Oscar's horrific actions occurred while he was in a simultaneous sleep/wake state, also known as parasomnia.  Throughout this book, Willock uses scientific scrutiny and legal precedence to resolve the crucial anomalies surrounding the Oscar Pistorius trial. He also discusses how mental health experts and the defence team might have overlooked the hypothesis of parasomnia that could have exonerated Oscar.

Millions who followed the Blade Runner's astonishing achievements, uplifted and inspired by his triumph over physical adversity, were crushed and baffled by his precipitous plunge from grace. Oscar himself, in a television interview shortly before his sentencing, achingly asked, "I always think, How did this possibly happen? How could this have happened?” At last, Willock?s elegant work responds to these poignant questions that have so plagued and pained Reeva?s family, friends, Oscar, and, indeed, the world.

Leading Experts in the Field Endorse this Book:

"This book is a murder mystery but not a ‘who done it?’ we know who fired the shots through the door of the toilet room killing reeva, the girlfriend of oscar pistorius. he had  been asleep next to her when he was awakened by a noise he thought was due to one or more intruders. he ran to the bathroom calling to reeva to phone the police and shouting to the intruder(s) to get out of his house. neither she nor they responded. after being frozen in fear he shot through the locked door and then discovered reeva close to death. from here on the story is a detailed analysis of the legal procedures, the misunderstandings of the state of mind of the accused: was he fully conscious and so responsible for murder? The author, Brent Willock, is highly informed to make a compelling case that oscar was not fully conscious, therefore not responsible, and to address the other possible states of mind oscar may have gone through during and following this tragic event. the book sums up the pressing need for lawyers, judges and jurors to become familiar with the unconscious mind of sleep that does not obey the logic of the mind fully awake.”

—Rosalind Cartwright, Ph.D. Professor and Chairman Emerita, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Director, Sleep Disorder Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago. Author, The Twenty-four Hour Mind: the role of sleep and dreaming in our emotional lives (Oxford University Press).

"This well-researched, scientifically accurate, and nicely written book by dr. willock invokes an alternative explanation for oscar pistorius’ behaviors on february 14, 2013, namely that the tragic event could be well-explained by a parasomnia (confusional arousal/sleepwalking). such conditions are a reminder that wake and sleep are not mutually exclusive, but rather may co-exist simultaneously: part of the brain capable of producing complex behaviors is awake, while parts responsible for monitoring and laying down memories of such behaviors are asleep permitting behavior without conscious awareness and therefore without culpability. furthermore, during these states of mixed wake and sleep, there may be impaired perception of the environment with diminished insight, judgement, and reasoning resulting in flawed recall of details of these events which may appear unrealistic, puzzling, confusing, contradictory, unreasonable, or irrational. this scientifically-based concept should be valuable to all parties (perpetrator, victim, prosecution, and defense) in future similar cases.”

—Mark W. Mahowald, MD, Professor of Neurology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA (Retired)

—Michel A. Cramer Bornemann, MD, D-ABSM, FAASM, Lead Investigator—Sleep Forensics Associates (SFA)

Related Scientific & Professional Publications concerning Parasomnia & Pistorius:

Dr. Willock recently published an article concerning Pistorius and sleep disorders in a journal of the American Psychological Association. 

An article on this matter is scheduled to come out within a couple of months in a leading South African legal journal.

Interested journalists can obtain a copy of either article from Dr. Willock (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Upcoming Scientific Meeting, Nov. 18, 2023

This will be a Zoom meeting between South African and Canadian colleagues (mostly mental health professionals and those working with sleep disorders). Any South African media person can attend for FREE. Any other South African citizen who makes a brief, convincing case for their legitimate interest in learning more about this scientific perspective can also attend. You may obtain a description of this event, and a link to Register, from: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Special Kindle Feature e-book, November only: 13 Rand

For the month in which the November 18, 2023 South Africa-Canada Zoom Dialogue takes place, Kindle is almost giving Dr. Willock's book away anywhere you purchase e-books (e.g., your local bookstore's website, Amazon books, etc.).

Biography of Dr. Brent Willock:

Brent Willock earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan. After several years on staff in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical Center, he relocated to Toronto to become Chief Psychologist at the university-affiliated C.M. Hincks Treatment Center. He was Adjunct Faculty, York University, Associate Faculty Member, School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto, and taught at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He is a faculty member at Adelphi University’s Postgraduate Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.

Dr. Willock is the founding President of the local chapter of the American Psychological Association's Division of Psychoanalysis, and of the Toronto Institute & Society for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He has contributed many chapters to books, published in prominent journals, and serves on the editorial boards for several journals and book series. For the Washington Psychoanalytic Foundation's New Directions in Psychoanalytic Thinking Program, he is a Writing Mentor. He is author of Comparative-Integrative Psychoanalysis (finalist, Goethe Award), First Editor of Understanding and Coping with Failure; Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Identity and Difference; Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Passion; On Deaths and Endings (Gradiva Award), Taboo or Not Taboo? (Goethe Award), Loneliness and Longing (Goethe Award).

Dr. Willock serves on the Board of the Canadian Institute for Child & Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psycho-therapy, the faculty of the Institute for the Advancement of Self Psychology, and the Advisory Board of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. His many contributions have been honored by the Ontario Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association, the Canadian Psychological Association, the International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education, the University of Chicago, the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, and the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

My hope with this press release:

South Africa and the world has been deeply divided by a binary narrative: either Pistorius killed Reeva deliberately, possibly after an argument, or he honestly feared criminals had entered his home and were about to kill him and Reeva. While Oscar certainly killed Reeva, he likely did so in a simultaneous sleep/wake state and therefore might not be Criminally responsible. He will suffer for the rest of his life for what he did, but that agony might be offset by his understanding more about why this happened. This scientific understanding might also reduce the pain suffered by Reeva's family and friends. I hope professionals in the media will publicize this book, these articles, and the upcoming international meeting in order to facilitate discussion of these important ideas. If you need further details, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you.