Professional dynamics of the forensic evaluation of mental states in eighteenth-century Denmark-Norway.

This study examines criminal cases related to blasphemy under the absolute monarchy of Denmark-Norway, and presents the evaluation of mental states within a forensic context between 1713 and 1733. First, the article explains how the legal framework and normative guidelines for pastoral care envisaged the interplay between judges, priests and doctors in evaluating mental states. Then, an examination of selected cases is provided, showing the dynamics and the role assignment in the evaluation of mental states in practice. Covering a period characterized by a gradual differentiation of theology, law and medicine, this case study enhances understanding of what preceded the development of psychiatry as a medical speciality during the nineteenth century.

Crimes of Passion and Psychiatry in Early Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

This article examines how early twentieth-century crime of passion trials constructed medical insanity and criminal responsibility by litigating varied interpretations of masculine decision making. Specifically, it looks at how defense lawyers used and applied psychiatric knowledge to their clients' benefit and how psychiatrists, in turn, (re)asserted control over that knowledge by condemning its misuse. The way that these medico-legal narratives played out in the courtroom during crime of passion trials, and in the public discourses that surrounded them, ultimately brought a smoldering competition between distinct understandings of modern masculinity into sharp focus.

Infanticide and the influence of psychoanalysis on Dutch forensic psychiatry in the mid-twentieth century.

This article demonstrates how psychoanalytic thought, especially ideas by Adler, Reik, Deutsch, and Alexander and Staub, informed forensic psychiatry in the Netherlands from the late 1920s. An analysis of psychiatric explanations of the crime of infanticide shows how in these cases the focus of (forensic) medicine and psychiatry shifted from somatic medicine to a psychoanalytic emphasis on unconscious motives. A psychoanalytic vocabulary can also be found in the reports written by forensic psychiatrists and psychologists in court cases in the 1950s. The new psychoanalytic emphasis on unconscious motives implied a stronger focus on the personality of the suspect. This article argues that psychoanalysis accelerated this development in the mid-twentieth century, contributing to the role of the psy-sciences in normalization processes.

Psicologia, loucura e justiça: os laudos psicológicos produzidos no IPF / Psychology, madness, and justice: the psychological reports produced by the Forensic Psychiatric Institute Maurício Cardoso / Psicología, locura y justicia: los informes psicológicos producidos por el Instituto Psiquiátrico Forense Maurício Cardoso

Resumo Este artigo busca compreender, desde uma perspectiva arqueogenealógica, a produção de laudos psicológicos no contexto do Instituto Psiquiátrico Forense Maurício Cardoso (IPF) entre 1989 e 2016. Para tal, realiza-se um breve percorrido histórico da reforma do sistema penal do final do século XVIII, com o estabelecimento de uma nova racionalidade penal e dos tensionamentos que o crime sem razão produz neste regime de verdade. Com isso, pretende-se situar a produção dos laudos psicológicos no campo de relações entre os discursos jurídico e psiquiátrico. Foram analisadas 263 papeletas administrativas catalogadas no arquivo do IPF, o que resultou na seleção de 43 documentos produzidos por psicólogos para compor o escopo da pesquisa. Os laudos foram divididos em cinco períodos, nos quais podem ser identificados três regimes discursivos: um regime explicativo, fundado nas relações entre desenvolvimento, instinto e perigo; um regime marcadamente disciplinar, de vigilância e relato; e, por fim, um regime discursivo, que funciona por meio de uma modulação do poder de cuidado.(AU)

Abstract This article aims to understand the production of psychological reports in the Forensic Psychiatric Institute (FPI) Maurício Cardoso between 1989 and 2016 from an archaeogenealogical perspective. To locate the production of psychological reports in the field of relations between judicial and psychiatric discourses, this study performed a brief historical review of the 18th-century penal system reform, which established a new criminal rationality and heightened the tensions produced by crimes without reason in this regime of truth. From the 263 administrative folders cataloged in the FPI archive, 43 documents written by psychologists were selected for the research scope. These documents were analyzed and divided into five different moments, indicating three discursive regimes: an explanatory one, founded on the relations between development, instinct, and danger; a disciplinary regime of surveillance and reporting; and a discursive regime that works through the modulation of care power.(AU)

Resumen Este artículo pretende comprender, desde la perspectiva arqueogenealógica, la producción de informes psicológicos por el Instituto Psiquiátrico Forense Maurício Cardoso (IPF) en el período entre 1989 y 2016. Para ello, se realiza un breve recorrido histórico de la reforma del sistema penal de finales del siglo XVIII, con el establecimiento de una nueva racionalidad penal y de las tensiones que el delito sin razón produce en este régimen de verdad. Lo que se propone es situar la producción de los informes psicológicos en el campo de relaciones entre los discursos jurídico y psiquiátrico. Se analizaron 263 papeletas administrativas catalogadas en el IPF, lo que resultó en la selección de 43 documentos producidos por psicólogos para componer el corpus de la investigación. Los informes se dividieron en cinco períodos en que pueden ser identificados tres regímenes discursivos: el explicativo fundado en las relaciones entre desarrollo, instinto y peligro; el marcadamente disciplinario, de vigilancia y relato; y, por fin, el discursivo que funciona mediante una modulación del poder de cuidado.(AU)

Arsenic, Familicide, and Female Physiology in Nineteenth-Century America.

Sarah Jane Whiteling was accused of fatally poisoning her husband and two children in Philadelphia in 1888. The case prompted public outrage over the appearance that Ms. Whiteling's motive was to collect life insurance. It was evident, however, that she was disturbed, raising a question of culpability. Dr. Alice Bennett, the first female physician in charge of an asylum, provided the defense with expert testimony on the defendant's mental state. Dr. Bennett, who had little forensic but much clinical experience, proposed a physiological theory of insanity among women with reproduction-related derangements. At that time, cultural ideas about "female poisoners" colored popular and journalistic perceptions of Ms. Whiteling. Familicide was considered unconscionable because a mother's duty was to nurture and protect her family. When Ms. Whiteling was convicted and sentenced to death, Dr. Bennett undertook a campaign for commutation. Her unsuccessful efforts to reduce culpability were followed by Ms. Whiteling's hanging in 1889, the first execution of a woman in Philadelphia since colonial times. This article recounts the Whiteling case, Dr. Bennett's involvement in it, and how it relates to what is known about familicide. It is argued here that Dr. Bennett was a pioneer in applying medical expert testimony to effect individualized mitigation.

A social history of serious mental illness.

Despite medical, technological, and humanitarian advances, the criminalization of those with serious mental illness continues. This is not an isolated phenomenon. The benefits of treatment reform and innovation are difficult to maintain or sometimes outright harmful. Across time and geography, the care of those with serious mental illness tends towards maltreatment, be it criminalization or other forms of harm. We present a social history of serious mental illness, along with the idea that the treatment of serious mental illness is a Sisyphean task-perpetually pushing a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll down and start again. The history is provided as a basis for deeper reflection of treatment, and treatment reform, of those with serious mental illnesses.

Clinical risk management in High-Security Forensic Psychiatry Residences. Protecting patients and health professionals: perspectives and critical issues of the Law 81/2014.

The Italian Law n. 9/2012 provided the Italian Regions with a new decisional role by demanding the management/rehabilitation of prisoners judged as partially/fully mentally ill to care and protection delivered by the psychiatric services of the Regional Health Service. Healthcare has to be guaranteed by the so-called High-Security Forensic Psychiatry Residences (Italian: Residenze per l'Esecuzione delle Misure di Sicurezza: REMS) and by community mental health centres. Ensuring patients' and professionals' health and safety is a complex issue which requires effective strategies to cope with several structural, technological, and organisational problems. The present paper summarises the historical evolution of the Italian laws towards the development of the High-Security Forensic Psychiatry Residences in Italy, focusing specifically on the Tuscany Region situation. The paper also presents the key issues emerging after the implementation of the Law 81/2014 which complemented the Law 9/2012. Since these reforms included the need for assessing to what extent the patient may be considered as a danger to society and for ensuring the safety of National Health Service (NHS) professionals, they underscored the importance of a preventive use of specific clinical governance tools aimed to reduce risk of adverse events. The present work has the strength of proposing a new, evidence-based scientific approach to the implementation of assessment and care pathways in High-Security Forensic Psychiatry Residences.

Examining the Past and Advocating for the Future of Forensic Psychiatry Training.

The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) has been devoted to the teaching of forensic psychiatry, and as AAPL celebrates its 50th Anniversary, it seems fitting to examine the history and the current status of forensic psychiatry teaching in general psychiatry residencies and forensic psychiatry fellowships. After a brief review of the history of AAPL and forensic psychiatry training, this article explores the current state of graduate medical education (GME) in the United States, the growing popularity of psychiatry as a specialty and forensic psychiatry as a subspecialty, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's requirements for forensic training, and the methods currently used to teach forensic psychiatry to general psychiatry residents. This article also examines the current status of forensic psychiatry fellowship training in the United States. Finally, future challenges to forensic training in both residencies and fellowships will be discussed, as well as the need for AAPL and others in the profession to advocate for increased forensic teaching in a manner that leads to the production of both general and forensic psychiatrists who are competent to practice independently and who are sufficient in number to meet the growing demands for forensic expertise.

[Thoughts on Hungarian Forensic Psychiatric Expertise. Interview with professor László Tringer on his 80th birthday].

Professor László Tringer, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, will revive his almost half a century experience in the field of Hungarian forensic psychiatry (since 1970) as an expert witness, as well as the memorable events of his work in this field. The activities of Medical Research Council Justice Committee (MRC JC), the inflation of psychiatric diagnoses and the question of expert objectivity are also discussed.

'Am I mad?': the Windham case and Victorian resistance to psychiatry.

This article revisits the notorious trial of William Windham, a wealthy young man accused of lunacy. The trial in 1861-2 saw the country's foremost experts on psychological medicine very publicly debate the concepts, symptoms and diagnosis of insanity. I begin by surveying the trial and the testimonies of medical experts. Their disparate assessments of Windham evoked heated reactions in the press and Parliament; these reactions are the focus of the second section. I then proceed to examine criticism of psychiatry in the newspapers more generally in the 1860s, outlining the political resistance to psychiatry and the responses of some leading psychiatrists. In conclusion, I consider what this says about the politics of medicalization at the time.

Evolution of forensic psychiatry in Italy over the past 40 years (1978-2018).

In Italy, following the closure of psychiatric hospitals in 1978 and the release of psychiatric patients into community care, there was a mismatch between common psychiatric patients and the convicted mentally ill who were sentenced to serve in state forensic psychiatric hospitals. The recent closure of such structures following the Prime Minister's Decree of April 1, 2008, fostered the need to create new structures. These are called "REMS," and they are based in the community and led by psychiatrists and healthcare staff who may rely on the collaboration of public security staff. This act completed a course of progressive deinstitutionalization of all psychiatric patients. However, some problems remain, and persons regarded as "partially mentally disabled" at the time of crime perpetration must serve part of their sentence in prison and the rest in the aforementioned structures or in psychiatric rehabilitation communities, depending on their claimed "social dangerousness." Psychiatric services now face the ambiguity of treating persons who are considered dangerous by court orders, while the civil law criteria for involuntary hospitalization is based only on the need of care. The complete closure of forensic hospitals may be considered a decisive step forward in the humanization of society, but there are still some issues to address to make it work better. The implementation of multidisciplinary teams and effective psychotherapy, psychoeducational, and rehabilitation interventions can help.

Forensic Experts, Indigent Defendants, and the Constitution.

Over 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court held that indigent defendants raising psychiatric issues are entitled to the assistance of a mental health expert. However, the exact dimensions of that assistance, and whether the expert must be assigned exclusively to assist the defense, have been in contention ever since. In its recent decision in McWilliams v. Dunn, the Court underscored that the state-funded expert must be available to consult with the defense, not merely to evaluate the defendant, but declined to opine on whether the defense is entitled to its own expert for the purpose.

'They accused me of strangling her': epilepsy and violence debate in Croatia at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.

Nineteenth-century psychiatry shifted its focus to the brain as the seat of mental disorders. With a new understanding of mental disorders arose the need to consult forensic psychiatrists in cases of criminal acts committed by persons with mental illness. This article focuses on three murders committed by 'epileptics' at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries in Croatia. An analysis of these cases will help to situate forensic psychiatry at the turn of the century within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and reveal the authority that forensic experts wielded in the courts. We will argue that Cesare Lombroso's biological theory of crime, as well as the influence of eugenicists and pharmaceutical companies, shaped the long-standing relationship between epilepsy and violent behaviour.

A brief history of forensic mental health services in Western Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To scope the history of forensic mental health services in Western Australia since colonisation. METHOD: A range of primary sources, including archives, reports, and oral histories was consulted. RESULTS: Forensic mental health services were identified as historically poorly managed, under-resourced, and inconsistently delivered. CONCLUSIONS: Current problems with forensic mental health services may be linked to historical factors.

Miscarriages of transmission: body, text, and method.

An introductory and exploratory attempt to examine the possibility of viewing the famous writings of Judge Daniel Paul Schreber as the intimations of translawyering. Volubly convinced he was becoming a woman, Judge Schreber announced that he would nail his flag to the feminine and was incarcerated as mad for his pains and his pleasures. It is time to release him and to read his work not as madness but as a unique conjunction of desire and law.

[A role of Russian psychiatrists in the formation of forensic psychiatry in Russia in the beginning of XIX century].

The formation of forensic psychiatry knowledge as a special area of concern was due to fundamental changes in the social, economic and political life of Russia society. It reflected public awareness of the urgent need in solving the problem of support, preserve and maintain the mental health of the people. Forensic psychiatry was based on the development of psychiatry, public health and community medicine. Author describes of the role of Russian psychiatrists in the formation of forensic psychiatry, their active particitpation in internation professional meetings and in the development of the problem of responsibility.

Madness and crime: Zefinha, the longest confined woman in Brazil.

Living in a forensic hospital for the last 38 years, Josefa da Silva is the longest female inhabitant surviving the penal and psychiatric regime in Brazil. This paper analyses dossier, judicial proceedings, interviews and photographs about her. The psychiatric report is the key component of the medical and penal doubling of criminal insanity. Twelve psychiatric reports illustrate three time frames of the court files: abnormality, danger, and abandonment. The psychiatric authority over confinement has moved from discipline to security, and from disciplinary security to social assistance. In the arrangement between the penal and psychiatric powers, the judge recognizes the medical authority over the truth of insanity. It is the medicine of the reasons for Zefinha's internment that altered over the decades.