observed when it was a matter of a silent young woman sitting on a chair with her
arms folded and her lower lip stuck out. The only determination made was that she
must suffer from some kind of emotional disturbance, whose nature was of the sort
that could not be left untreated. The medical/legal report recommended care in a
closed psychiatric institution. An assistant head of the social welfare board wrote
an opinion in support of the conclusions of the psychiatric experts.
With regard to her personal record, the opinion concluded that there was grave risk
of alcohol and drug abuse, and that she lacked self-awareness. By then her casebook
was filled with terms such as introverted, socially inhibited, lacking in empathy, ego-
fixated, psychopathic and asocial behaviour, difficulty in cooperating, and incapable of
assimilating learning. Anyone who read her casebook might be tempted to
conclude that Salander was seriously retarded. Another mark against her was that
the social services street patrol had on several occasions observed her “with various
men” in the area around Mariatorget. She was once stopped and frisked in
Tantolunden, again with a much older man. It was feared that Salander was
possibly operating as, or ran the risk of becoming, a prostitute.
When the district court—the institution that would determine her future—met to
decide on the matter, the outcome seemed a foregone conclusion. She was
obviously a problem child, and it was unlikely that the court would come to any
decision other than to accept the recommendations of both the psychiatric and the
social inquiries.
On the morning the court hearing was to take place, Salander was brought from
the psychiatric clinic for children where she had been confined since the incident in
Gamla Stan. She felt like a prisoner from a concentration camp: she had no hope of
surviving the day. The first person she saw in the courtroom was Palmgren, and it
took a while for her to realise that he was not there in the role of a trustee but
rather as her legal representative.
To her surprise, he was firmly in her corner, and he made a powerful appeal against
institutionalisation. She did not betray with so much as a raised eyebrow that she
was surprised, but she listened intently to every word that was said. Palmgren was
brilliant during the two hours in which he cross-examined the physician, a Dr.
Jesper H. Löderman, who had signed his name to the recommendation that
Salander be locked away in an institution. Every detail of the opinion was
scrutinised, and the doctor was required to explain the scientific basis for each
statement. Eventually it became clear that since the patient had refused to