Psychiatrist: Bergdahl mental disorder factored in desertion

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s difficult childhood and his washout from Coast Guard boot camp stoked serious psychiatric disorders that helped spur him to walk off his remote post in Afghanistan in 2009, a psychiatrist testified Wednesday.

Dr. Charles Morgan said the soldier was already suffering from a schizophrenia-like condition and post-traumatic stress disorder when he disappeared in Afghanistan. Morgan was the final defense witness at sentencing, and closing arguments are expected to start Thursday.

The forensic psychiatrist said interviews with family and childhood friends, as well as a lengthy exam with Bergdahl, convinced him the soldier was suffering from schizotypal personality disorder when he disappeared in Afghanistan. He said he concurred with an Army Sanity Board document that previously made the diagnosis public.

On the stand, Morgan went into greater detail than what was previously disclosed about Bergdahl’s mental health. He said Bergdahl has an internal, self-critical commentary that he doesn’t recognize as his own thoughts. Bergdahl, he said, engages in fantasy and has thoughts of self-castration to purify himself.

Bergdahl and others with the disorder “have this experience of their own inner life as if it’s not them,” Morgan said. But Morgan said Bergdahl isn’t psychotic. He said Bergdahl knew right from wrong when he walked off his post. Still, the disorder makes it difficult for Bergdahl to see the secondand third-order effects of his actions, Morgan said.