The Law and the Psychiatrist
SIR,—Before 1914 people who stole were sent to gaol or fined. After the first war, as after the last, a wave of amorality swept the country. People of all classes, many of whom should have known better, pilfered the large shops whose glittering prizes tempted deft fingers. Facts as to these thefts were constantly proved to the hilt. Desperate defences were necessary. Psychiatrists (alias " trick cyclists" to the police) invented a new defence. " Kleptomania " proved useful, and many guilty persons who could afford the fee of a well-known medico got off. The poor dears suffering from this novel ailment did not at the moment of the theft appreciate the nature of theft nor that it was wrong! And this although before and after the act they, were admittedly as sanc as you or I. In course of time the Courts of Justice became deaf to this plea and it faded out. But murders, rapes and similar crimes of violence increased then, as they do now. It became necessary for those employed for the defence to find a new scientific name which might impress tribunals before whom a prisoner might appear, more especially on the capital charge.
For a time no adequate formula was found. But not for long. The killer who killed, whether through hatred, jealousy, revenge or even for money, must be protected. And if the case had a sexual aspect all the better for the accused. Medical men were found, often, though not always, of high medical, not' mental, distinction, who appeared to put forward a fresh disablement of the prisoner's mind. It. was, and is, called " epileptiform automatic unconsciousness." That is to say that, although no trace of epilepsy or insanity of any kind could be found in his family history, or in the mind of the prisoner himself, be was not culpable because at the moment of the commission of the crime he had such a " black-out " as he never had before or after the crime had been committed! A short cross-examination directed to the state oflinind of the psychiatrist witness himself has frequently blown this new theory sky-high! But not always, and therein lies the peril to the community that a violent criminal should go free.
True mental disease is easily ascertainable by any doctor—for example, acute mania, dementia praecox, general paralysis of the insane, 8r.e., &c.— and they are mostly incurable, hence our asylums. No medical witness is a whit better than any other class of professional witness. As the Lord Chief Justice recently sapiently Observed, it is for a jury to attach such importance to his evidence as they think fit. And those who call themselves healers of the mind (if they know Greek) and who, for reward,. are called in to explain away stark murder should not be allowed to over-awe juries by ex post facto theories. For such men are dangerous.
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