1. Abstract
This is a record of the one-year participant observation about Åsmund Skuterud (Koèju) in the period from September 2015 to October 2016. The purpose of this study is to understand the subject by interacting with him and observing his words and behaviors. It will be written by describing some main events and adding participant's interpretation. The study revealed that Mr. Skuterud's gender violence, date rapes and a statutory rape in various countries.
The limitation of complete participant observation study exists, however, the study achieved a certain level of 'objectivity' by nine survivors' active testimonies. To the original research for one year, the extra data obtained from the interviews with the people involved has been added as a process of cross-checking. Also, the researcher tried to have conversation with Åsmund Skuterud four times* and he has not tried to show any counter-evidence that can deny the contents of this blog until the present moment.
*The researcher tried 3 times of informal mediation on October 15, 19-21 and 28, 2017 via e-mail and a mediator. On October 29, 2017, the researcher tried another contact via Facebook but it was ignored by Mr. Skuterud.
2. Observation
[0] Basic Information of the Subject
Åsmund Skuterud, male, 39 years old (born in 1978), Norwegian.
[1] At The Early Stage: September 2015 - November 2016
The moment I started to be interested in the subject was November, 2015. It was approximately 2 months later since I met him and we already started to practice sexual intercourse regularly, meeting every weekend.
(*He said he had got checked up before we started the sexual encounters but denied it in April, 2016).
One day I started to suffer from inflammation and Itchy skin in the female genital area(around the vulva and labia). The result of the medical test showed that it was bacterial vaginosis caused by alteration of pH for using Åsmund Skuterud's saliva containing the bacteria as a lubricant. I wrote the cause and the result to him on Facebook messenger to share the information.
3 days passed without answer. I decided not to care if he would answer since I had many things to study in that moment and I thought bacterial vaginosis was not a big problem, even though I couldn't study for one week.
Interestingly, I saw him at the Starbucks Cafe, where I went to study. I didn't want to pay attention to the person who didn't care about me so that I tried to ignore him. However, he wrote me on Facebook and came to my seat to talk. He apologized about not answering and told me "I didn't want to take any responsibility" at that moment. This strange behavior made me being interested to observe him more. So, I decided to give him one more opportunity.
On the weekend (November 29, 2015), I met him to talk about the bacterial infection and forgive his irresponsible behavior toward the situation. He was with his coworker Simon Matthew Valentine, deleting all Facebook postings on his timeline. I asked him why. He answered "It is cool." But he accidentally showed me two pictures of him that were taken by a girl. He was embarrassed for a moment but tried to act naturally. In a few minutes, he got a video call from his mother. He answered in Norwegian, "Maybe she is stressed." when his mother asked why I looked like angry.
On the same day, I talked to him about the sexual exclusivity.
[2] Continuous Observation: December 2015 - January 2016
During this period that I visited my country for one month (Dec 16, 2015 - Jan 14, 2016), we didn't have contact for 10 days and he suddenly sent me a silly text asking if the people in my country buy expensive chat emoticons. At this moment I was feeling that we were not having any meaningful interaction so asked him to talk on Skype.
(*From reliable sources, he was in a sexual relationship with several girls-mainly teenagers around 16 years old including an under-aged girl- at the same time in December, 2015. This was informed in January and February, 2017)
I asked him directly, "What do you want?" since I wanted to know what he really wanted to get from our interactions. Then, he got upset saying repeatedly "That is too serious.", "You are accusing me", "That is passive-aggressive", "You are a drama queen.", "You give me bad energy", and "You need to communicate." He blamed me and made me think what I did wrong (*a sign of being a victim of gas-lighting). He seemed not to want to communicate but he continued telling me that was my communication problem. The conversation ended badly and I was still curious about why this subject showed those negative reactions about my question. So, I kept observing the subject.
[3] Something Smells Fishy: January 2016 - February 2016
In January 2016, I went to his flat after coming back from the trip but his attitude was something different. He desperately wanted to have sexual encounter and didn't pay any attention on the macarons I bought for him. We didn't have any condom at that moment so we had sexual encounters / oral sexual intercourse partially without any protection (*without knowing he had sexual encounters with other people). It occurred in the living room. His coworker Simon Matthew Valentine arrived during the sexual intercourse and he got angry after finding the situation. But Asmund Skuterud acted as if he had not done anything wrong.
In the same month, he said that his female "friend" from Norway visited him for one week. He was going to visit my apartment but arrived late. He said "The phone died so I had to charge it. For a while I was jamming with her."
(*From some reliable sources, he was in multiple sexual relationships at the same time in Oslo, Norway before coming to Colombia. Informed in October 2016 and March 2017)
On February 6 2017, He was being around a group of girls after the concert of Koèju at Club Octava (Bogota D.C., Colombia). I went there and found him. I grabbed his hand but he tried to put away my hand. I asked him "Are you okay? Are you drunk?" touching his cheek. He said "I've got to go." to the girls and took me to the backstage. He asked me come to his flat later.
(*From the reliable sources, he invited all the girls who were involved with him to this concert.)
In February 2016, he left Colombia. On the last day I was in his flat alone for 2 hours since he had to give the house key to the owner. At this moment I found that Asmund Skuterud was writing to a Colombian musician with the Facebook account of Simon Matthew Valentine (his partner of Koèju), not his one.
(*From the reliable sources, It was revealed that he was talking to other girls in that moment to meet them after I went home. It was reported on February, 2017).
Before they leave, I had told him that we should cut the contact off after he left Colombia, but he said he would contact me and visit my home country.
[4] The Narcissist's Manipulation: February 2016 - March 2016
In February-March 2016, I tried to send him a text once a week since I didn't have much time during the semester. He started not to respond well. So, I asked him to talk to end our relationship and asked him again, "What do you want?" He wrote a lot, saying "It doesn't mean I don't care about you even if I don't write for one or two months." and blamed me as a "drama queen" again.(*a sign of gas-lighting and lying - being defensive)
(*The information, reported in October 2016, showed that he was with his friends with benefits and also he was hooking up with others in this period)
In March, I got diagnosed with Mixed Anxiety-depressive disorder and one day I had a suicidal ideation. I told it to him and his reaction was changed surprisingly. He told me to visit him in Taiwan.
[5] The First Visit to Taipei, Taiwan - April 2016
In April, 2016. I visited him in Taipei, Taiwan for 2 weeks since I trusted his words.
I asked him "What is the serious thing you said?" He answered "Marriage. But I'm serious now". I told him I don't want to get married to anyone because of some personal reasons. Later, we had sexual encounters. But I was feeling that he was emotionally far from me. I asked him if he slept with someone between the period of Colombia and Taiwan. He said "Yes. It was just physical. It doesn't have anything to do with the feeling I have about you".
It was very risky for me since we already practiced unprotected oral sexual intercourse and kiss. Additionally, he didn't get checked up.
At this moment I felt that our interaction between us still didn't have enough trust and honesty to have a strong bonding with rapport. So I tried to build a good rapport to observe him better. I told him that he needed to be open up to me and he should say if he sees someone else since I don't want to feel betrayed anymore. When I told him this, he said "I don't want to hear that you sleep with someone".
It was the second opportunity that I gave to him.
During the first week of the trip, he did Skype calls with two friends who were involved in Koeju project saying me, "I told her make her Facebook page to be professional but she doesn't understand with chat so I have to call. (After the short Skype call) Look, she is just a kid." and "They have a ship (Nightclub Barka in Krakow, Poland) and will hold a festival there. So, I'm asking her if they can put us on the list. And if they get money we could ask them to give us some."
(*In October 2016, It was revealed that the two "friends" he was talking to in front of me on Skype were his friends with benefits.)
During the second week of the trip, he said "Simon, unfriend C (a girl name) and do not receive any message from her." to his coworker Simon Matthew Valentin (aka Simon Matthew Jones-tyridal) in Norwegian.
He also told me about his ex-girlfriend who tried to commit suicide. "One day when we were playing, she suddenly came to me and said I needed to see something. And she disappeared. After the concert I went home and she already took a lot of sleeping pills. I called an ambulance and took her to a hospital. She didn't wake up for 3 days. I had to explain what happened to her family. My father and brother told me not to contact her. After that I've never heard from her." (*By some reliable sources, it was revealed that he said this story to every victim. - Reported in February and May 2017. This could be an invented story to get the attention of female body people or he might be the cause of her suicidal attempt if it was real.)
[6] Diagnosis of HPV type 52: May 2016 - August 2016
In May, 2016. after returning from Taipei, Taiwan, I had vaginal-bleeding and I got diagnosed with high risk HPV type 52. I told it to him and I said that he have to inform this to his "friends" who had sexual intercourse with him during the period February-April, 2016.
Between May and August, I tried to text to him everyday. I was depressive and it was clinically recommended to talk to someone who I could trust. Also, I was still curious about his strange behaviors.
One day he asked me to organize a gig in my country but I had to refuse it considering the advice of my friends in music field because of Koeju's musical level in comparison with the local musicians. He got angry and started to give me an excuse frequently such as "The phone died. No battery" when he didn't answer. He started to avoid video calls. (*It was because he found other sources of narcissistic supply and made them involved in his work to organize the gigs in Asia - reported in May, 2017)
During this period, my depression got worse with the diagnosis of HPV and I was suffering from constant vaginal inflammation and abnormal discharge.
(*In May - July, 2016. He was still maintaining the relationships with his friends with benefits/coworkers and also was hooking up for Tinder in Poland and Norway. - reported in November 2016 and May 2017)
(*Around June - October 2016, He was seeing various Taiwanese girls at the same time. It was informed on March and April, 2017)
In August 16, 2016. He told he wanted a relationship with me without sexual relation because it makes his emotion "complicating". It sounded very strange and I wanted to know why this subject wanted to continue this relationship in that form. I thought that there would be hidden reasons. I said again, "You should notice when you are seeing someone." and I started to ask him to collaborate about my medical exam cost (*The cost of the full STD exam I got in April 2016 was 670 US dollars.).
(*In October 2016 and In March 2017, a reliable source confirmed that it was because he started to see multiple people at the same time, without informing the HPV infection status.)
[7] The Second Visit to Taipei, Taiwan : September 7-12, 2016
On 7-12 September, 2016. I visited him to solve our problems. He refused physical contact so I asked him the reason. He didn't answer well and said he just didn't feel to do it. I realized that he was not honest. I tried to establish our trust with some physical contacts like holding hands or hugging (not in a sexual way) since the skin contact helps us feel comfortable in the conversation with Oxytocin secretion (M. Kosfelds et al., 2005). I stayed some nights with him talking and having some physical contact in a non-sexual way, to have more rapport with him in our relationship.
On the third day of my trip, he said he would come to the hotel later because he had a meeting with some people. "The meeting" took 6 hours from 4pm to 10pm. I asked him "Why the meeting was so long? When I have meeting it takes maximum 3 hours." He was a bit embarrassed and answered, "We talked about videos and they didn't know about the program. We had to teach them some techniques about it." It sounded strange and also the answer provided too much detail. It was one of the classical signs of lying.
The last day of visiting, he said clearly "I can't promise sexual exclusivity". Considering his past behaviors, it could mean that 'he already had sexual intercourse with others' (although he knew he had HPV). So, I told him again, "Then you should tell it to me." He didn't say anything. After a long pause, he said some words, "If we have sex....(he murmured)". I was waiting for listening to the truth. I tried to have a conversation with him as much as I could to get more information to understand him.
[8] The First Confrontation Against the Narcissist : September, 2016
In September 2016 I got diagnosed with anorexia and started to vomit everyday. I got tested again and I still had high risk HPV type 52 and severe vaginal inflammation. I asked him to collaborate with my medical exams again. He said yes and I sent him the receipt.
Later, he didn't pay it and said "it's reality. When you have sex with someone you need to take the risk." I told him, "You have responsibility about this. You need to show me it as an action." He seemed embarrassed.
In the same month (September, 2016), he told me he started to practice with his coworker Simon Mathew Valentine everyday 6 to 11 pm because Simon didn't know how to make groove and was depressed for it (*It was revealed as a lie later from a reliable source in October 2016). Additionally, he told me he can't "work" because of my texting. So, I reduced the amount of conversation for 3 weeks.
(*In the period August - October 2016, he was seeing several Taiwanese girls at the same time without informing about his multiple relationships and HPV infection. Also he was with several girls in Bangkok, Thailand around July 22 and October 9 - informed in October and November 2016, March and April 2017)
[9] The Third Visit to Taipei, Taiwan - October, 2016
On 10-12 October, 2016. I visited him again to solve our problems as soon as possible since my health status was going worse. It was a sudden visit so I didn't expect to meet him. He appeared to meet me. In this moment he refused every physical contact(*a clear sign of lying). He said he didn't want to make more "problem". I asked him "What problem?" He didn't answer. It was very strange.
I tried to talk and spend my time with him to know what was really happening. I tried to talk about myself to make him be open and tell me about himself. But the conversation was very shallow and hitting around the bush. I asked him to stay with me. He refused and said "we had a good time before this". I answered, "Sometimes the good time would be the worst one."
(*After returning from the trip, It was revealed that on that day he met another girl later. He said "I have a meeting with someone of the club")
On the last day of my trip, he was very nervous and said "You are taking this chance to have a (committed) relationship." I thought we had discussed about the topic enough and set the rule already, but I realized in this moment that he didn't understand well what I said or something was wrong.
I told him again that this relationship could last if we have trust and honesty. I tried to tell him the physical contact (even in non-sexual way) would help us to be close, because of the oxytocin(OT) effect that can help to build trust (M. Kosfelds et al., 2005). He said "I don't want to be close". He refused completely, showing uncomfortable/scared facial expression. It was a clear sign of lying or fear of intimacy.
I was very wondering why he wanted to continue this relationship in this form. I felt there was something but I didn't have enough evidence to explain it.
When I went to the airport, I asked him to come with me. He refused, saying "The conversation was too intense. I will go to work at the cafe alone." But he didn't move and just stood there, waiting until I disappear. After checking I was gone, he entered his flat again.
[10] The Revealed Secret: October 2016
On October 13 (the day I came back to my home country), I found that he lied to me and didn't share the information enough in a conversation with one of his Taiwanese casual partners and coworkers Wei Ting Zeng (Wei Ting Tseng).
He sent the following text at 6:31 a.m. on October 14, 2016:
In the same month, I obtained the information that most of his female friends/coworkers (female guest artists, concert booking agents, VJs, etc.) are in friends with benefits relationships with him also from some reliable sources.
Additionally, many targets who are not involved in Koeju project were founded. The majority of victims didn't get informed that he was in a multiple relationships at the same time and he had the risk of HPV infection. His targets are found in various countries: Norway, Sweden, Poland, Russia, Spain, Colombia, Brasil, Taiwan, Vietnam and South Korea but it could be more numbers. Also, the researcher found that he used the ideas from our conversation as if it were his own thought, in November, 2016.
[11] The Post Observation : October 2016 - Present
Data collection to support the original observation regarding HPV transmission and post-analysis about the subject(Åsmund Skuterud, Koèju and Jazz in Khartoum)'s reactions are conducted for one month during the period October 13 - November 14, 2016. Later, his additional reaction data has been added during the period from November 2016 to July 2017. The principal method was communicating with people involved and gathering their experience.
During the process of post-investigation about the personal problem with Åsmund Skuterud, some other victims appeared and the blog turned into a victim community, that has a new purpose of preventing victims by exposing his behaviors.
Part 1: Koèju
During the post-observation, the subject showed the following reactions:
1. Trying to block the researcher's approach toward the people involved (Closing his Facebook account temporarily and deactivating Koèju's Instagram account).
2. Trying to hide the information creating new pages(Facebook, Blogger, Youtube, Twitter, Linkedin, etc) on the internet with his name.
3. Trying to increase the visible numbers of people on his page.
These reactions demonstrate that the subject suffers from a low self-esteem and a lack of problem solving skills, observed in the last report. Specifically, the first reaction was to keep his narcissistic supplies according to the interview data collected during the period November 2016 - February 2017. The extreme fear of other people's judgment made him act but confronting the problem creates a negative emotion that is hard to handle for him. Hence, he chose an avoidance strategy to run away from the problem instead of direct solution such as asking deletion of posts and negotiation [1]. However, the problem has continued to get worse since ignoring the issue doesn't make it go away. So, his next strategy was focusing on the new group of people who don't have any emotional interaction with him to forget the current situation.
Since November 2016, the subject has been acting as if nothing had happened and tried to create a false image, which is clearly not according to the data and completely against his actual behaviors, publishing some news posts on his Facebook timeline. (ex. News about Feminism/LGBT or scientific topics, that he is not really interested in and doesn't know well.) The reaction he has shown, that is believing his distorted self-image, is typically observed in NPD patients as a defensive mechanism (Perry, J.C. et al, 2013). Additionally, the publications that he has uploaded also strongly support that he doesn't have high-level knowledge in any specific field since in those publications the topics are superficially touched.
In November 2016, after publishing this blog, the subject Asmund Skuterud cut off the contact with the majority of Taiwanese girls (his narcissistic supply) that he had been in relationship with until October, 2016. It could be interpreted as a behavior to maintain his "false image" to public and not to be exposed. (*reported by a reader in May 2017). But he was still in multiple sexual relationships.(*reported by another reader in May 2017)
On November 11, 2016, we received the first thank-you message from a Taiwanese victim via Facebook:
In January and February 2017, several people who were involved with Åsmund Skuterud contacted us. In February 2017, the author went to meet one of his teenager victims in person. All conversation was legally recorded.
In January and February 2017, the subject tried to have the conversation with his narcissistic supplies who were still having contact with him. He told them as if the researcher had been asking for a big amount of money, victimizing himself (*reported in February and May 2017). He also lied to them that he was receiving psychiatric treatment for several months because of the researcher. (*reported in May 2017)
On March 3-4, a Norwegian guy contacted us on Instagram, claiming our victim community is a harassment and bullying. The proper explanation about our purpose was provided to him and we also changed our account name to Koeju Victims considering his criticism. In that conversation he said, "I'm not related to any of the boys in Koeju, I like their music. So I don't know how you found me at all" (*In May 2017, it was revealed that this was a false statement and he was clearly related to Åsmund Skuterud.)
On March 14 in 2017, a Taiwanese ex-date of Simon Matthew Valentine (Åsmund Skuterud's coworker) sent us a message via Instagram:
Since April 2017 until now, the subject has tried to hide the information hiring Search engine marketing (SEM) companies and did a SEO work renewing his Koeju homepage with a web marketing company. (Also his narcissistic enabler and coworker Simon Matthew Valentine used the Norwegian Company Slettmeg.no to clean up his online reputation in March 2017.)
In April 2017, the subject deleted the concert images of Koeju page temporally from the google search result. This occurred after that we criticized the Global Oslo Music's official support.
On May 1 2017, the subject registered the images on the search result again to hide the screenshot image result of this blog. After publishing this phrase, the subject removed the majority of the pictures on the Koeju homepage again from the search result.
On May 10, that is the day we posted about
Asmund Skuterud's date rape in Taiwan, his party reported our Instagram account as a false one.
Prediction based on the collected data of the part 1:
The subject Åsmund Skuterud has lost the majority of his narcissistic supply. It is highly expected that he will try to connect to the old narcissistic supply, including the field people who have involved with him before.
Part 2: Jazz in Khartoum (at Khartoum Contemporary Art Center in Oslo, Norway)
In this part 2, the subject Åsmund Skuterud shows the expected reaction as we mentioned above (the conclusion of the part 1).
Since May 30, Asmund Skuterud started a new band called "Jazz in Khartoum" with Wei Ting Zeng, who is psychologically detached and subjected to Mr. Skuterud, at Khartoum Contemporary Art Center (Oslo, Norway) on Tuesdays without giving any apology to the victims.
On June 4, we expressed our discomfort about the official support of Khartoum Contemporary Art Center (Oslo, Norway) on the subject Åsmund Skuterud. They blocked our Instagram account and they've not sent any reply about this issue yet.
In June and July 2017, Mr. Skuterud tried to promote the new band Jazz in Khartoum using the names of the people who have worked in Koèju Project on Facebook. An attempt to hack our Instagram account by Åsmund Skuterud on June 22.
On July 4, 2017, we published a testimony of one of Åsmund Skuterud (Koèju / Jazz in Khartoum)'s ex-coworkers, who was sexually involved with him once in July 2016. We received the first email from her on May 25-26 and she asked us to have a chat to share more details so that we had four more contacts during the period from May 31 to July 2 [
Details].
On July 5, one day after publishing the testimony of his ex-coworker, Mr. Skuterud sent a message that says "I did think of you as a friend, AND, smarter than that." without any apology about his behaviors [
Details]. Addtionally,
Mr. Skuterud contacted her coworkers and told them about her report to threaten her. On the same day, Åsmund Skuterud created a web page for Jazz in Khartoum.
Since July 2017, the subject has tried to hide the information on web, with the same Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Company.
In August - September 2017, people who have been involved in Koeju project (mainly Kjetil Jerve, Harald Lassen, Bendik Baksaas and Christian Meaas Svendsen) have tried to hide Mr. Skuterud crime and promote Jazz in Khartoum.
On September 18, 2017, Mr. Skuterud's party reported our blog as 'harassment'. The blog blocked approximately for 2 weeks until September 29.
On October 2, 2017, Mr. Skuterud's party reported our blog as 'harassment' again. The blog blocked approximately for 2 days until October 4, 2017.
On October 16, 2017, we expressed our discomfort about the support for Mr. Skuterud on Khartoum Contemporary Art Center's Facebook page. They deleted our comment.
October 19, 2017
Mr. Skuterud published an ironic post that says he supports "Me too campaign", that has a similar purpose of our blog.
October 28, 2017
We expressed our discomfort on Mr. Skuterud's Facebook post:
"Your victims are suffering from trauma while you are celebrating." Mr. Skuterud deleted the comment.
On November 1, 2017, Mr. Skuterud reported our blog and Facebook page. The blog was blocked until November 7, 2017.
November 9, 2017
We had a conversation with Mr. Skuterud's party on Instagram.
(*She didn't permit to publish the detail of our conversation.)
On the same day, Mr. Skuterud sent a message to one of our informants:
"Hi, please reply to me about this. Just basically tell me if you have said those things if it is a mistake/misunderstanding?" (1 hour and 30 minutes later)
"I was pretty shocked when I saw those things written about you/us. Both Simon and I could kind of not believe that you would write those things."
His message didn't include any kind of apology about his sexual misconduct nor remorse.
(*We don't upload the screenshot because of the informant's request.)
November 26, 2017
Mr. Skuterud's party reported our Facebook page.
December 6, 2017
Mr. Skuterud's party and Global Oslo Music reported our Facebook page three times after we sent a complaint letter to Norwegian Music Fund (Musikkfondene.no).
December 12, 2017
We sent an email about Mr. Skuterud in English, directly to the Norwegian Police.
Part 3: Global Oslo Music and Aqsaq
December 19, 2017
Åsmund Skuterud started a new band called Aqsaq with Safaa Al Sadi and Jonas Cambien. Khartoum Contemporary Art Center supported them to have a concert officially.
January, 2018.
Global Oslo Music (mainly Malika Makouf Rasmussen) tried to separate the name of Koeju from their brand as a way of crisis management, without any official statement.
January 26, 2018
A Norweigian musician helped us to tip off Norwegian police to Mr. Skuterud's case. We closed our private investigation.
February 13, 2018
Den Mangfaldige Scenen informed us that they decided not to involve Åsmund Skuterud in their project, after their internal investigation about his sexual assault.
February 14, 2018
We had a conversation with Khartoum Contemporary Art Center. They confirmed that they have not conducted any kind of internal investigation on the perpetrator Åsmund Skuterud and his enablers since June, 2017.
The subject Mr. Skuterud has been showing the same reaction pattern of the part 1, to protect his false image. There is little possibility of refuting the original report (See below: Conclulsion).
4. Conclusion
The subject's behavior could be explained by the concept of the tendency of the vulnerable type Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). He also presented some antisocial features such as pathological lying, exploitative social relationships and multiple sex partners (Caligor, E. et al., 2015). This could be a sign of sex addiction since he has never been in a status of sexual abstinence during the period of investigation, as reported by the interview data collected until March 2017.
It is obvious that he has difficulty to have a deep connection / relationship since handling negative emotions caused by intimacy / closeness, that allows someone can see his true-self, is a painful task for him. To keep his false-self (Perry, J.C. et al, 2013), he tries to ignore the problem that he caused and acts as if it had not happened. It shows that the subject has a distorted self-image and an avoidance of responsibility, that are the signs of NPD. Additionally, he showed some signs of paranoia so that it is difficult for him to trust someone else.
He presented several signs of low self-esteem in this observation. He fears the abandonment of people (especially his narcissistic supply) and doesn't want to get hurt emotionally. In the original observation and the other interviews with other victims, he showed anger and violent reactions when he thought that he was rejected. At the same time, he tends to have a desire to get attention from others more than normal people do.
The combination of these aspects makes him to keep searching new relationship, have multiple partners at the same time, pathologically lie, avoid the situation, and not to express his emotion properly, although it actually causes serious problems in social relations.
According to the analysis of the collected interview data, his narcissistic supplies are those who could be easily controlled: women in their mid-late 10's and early-mid 20's (including under-aged girls : 15 years old), mostly sitting at a cafe alone or having a tendency of depression, and normally those who studying / working abroad or having a plan to go outside of their country soon. Also, he frequently uses the dating app Tinder to find the partners. In the case of his coworkers, the first encounter used to be at the nightclubs where he had Koeju concerts. The majority of victims didn't get informed that he was in a multiple relationships at the same time and the risk of STD.
Also he showed some preferences in the target choice:
Those who are from the countries that he thinks "inferior" such as Hispanics or people with one Latino parent, Asians and Eastern Europeans.
Another discovered pattern is that some of those victims have been used to organize the gigs of Koèju in their home country or be involved in his work if the victims are field people. He used to stay in those countries for a long time when he could keep the narcissistic relationships with those victims. It could be another reason why he prefers the targets from the countries that are considered "musically and economically inferior" in his perception, considering some victims' testimonies that he has tried to keep contacting them without any reason after leaving. (*He mentioned about the musical inferiority of those countries 4 times during the period of investigation. See the below Annex 1 for the details.)
Additionally, the use of specific words such as "cool", "future", "smart", "intense" and "friend" was frequently observed in the context of lying.
The presented negative reactions as a defensive mechanism like compulsive lying, manipulating/gas-lighting and deception could be caused by past psychological trauma, normally from the childhood. However, the researcher failed to establish the rapport with the subject at the later stage of the observation and couldn't find what was the exact trauma.
Also the subject used to mention that he doesn't have good relationship with his mother but with his father relatively better. The relationship between the subject and his mother could be related to his attachment style and the problem of intimacy. A further investigation about the relationship with his mother is required.
Additional comment: The testimony of his ex-coworker (posted on July 4, 2017) supports the original observation about the subject. The subject showed the characteristic traits of NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder); grandiosity, attention seeking, and impaired empathy and intimacy in interpersonal interaction (APA, 2012). The newly discovered traits in this report are general irresponsibility and pathological deception. Hence, there is a possibility of comorbidity with another Cluster B personality disorder or ADHD (Turgay, A., 2004).
*Note: The mentioned mental disorders in this page is not officially diagnosed. We use their medical definitions to describe efficiently the characteristic traits of the subject Åsmund Skuterud (Koèju) and clearly limit the conclusion at the level of tendency and possibility.
Annex 1: Conversation example showing the subject's NPD characteristics (arrogance, a sense of superiority, and power-seeking behaviors, etc)
These are the specific examples from the researcher's daily observational report to support the conclusion:
"Simon, they never can be like us." after visiting the music conservatory of a Colombian university in October 2015
"I told Simon he should marry Asian. They are submissive." in November 2015
"People should learn. Muslims never change." after telling him "I hope Hillary Clinton would be the president. Trump has discriminatory policies toward the immigrants." in April 2016
"(Annoyed face) In Oslo, there are two rappers. They always look down on other people. Why they are so arrogant?" in April 2016
"We can teach them the new technology from the future. People like hipsters would like it." about the question "Why are you guys in Asia? In Norway there are many great musicians, too" in April 2016
Researcher: "Why are you working with the Taiwanese people?"
Subject: "No, I'm not working with them."
Researcher: "You are."
Subject: "(Getting upset) I'm not working with Taiwanese people. We are here to develop our music and teach them the new technology. In Oslo I need to work for example at cafe." in September 10, 2016.
"(Looking at me) The level of your country..." after telling him about the interview with a Latin American guitarist who is doing World Music in October 2016
"(Texting to another victim) Yeah, when Spanish people speak English it sounds horrible." after telling him "I have to go and meet him because his native language is Spanish. I can do much better interview when the interviewee uses his native language.", in October 2016.
References
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