Psychiatric Aspects of Criminal Behavior : Collected Papers of Eugene Revitch

Eugene Revitch, M.D., was a prolific author, a seminal thinker, and truly ahead of his time. The papers he published many years ago are highly relevant today. He has written some of the first papers on sexual murder and sexual aggression long before there was widespread interest in these topics. He coined the term 'conjugal paranoia,' and was one of the first to study patients who kill their physicians, and made many contributions to the interface of psychiatry and neurology, specifically as it relates to explosive violence. The works of Doctor Eugene Revitch are as relevant today as when they were published fifty years ago. This book has been written in the hopes these important works of Doctor Revitch will not be abandoned nor forgotten. Among the key topics discussed in this volume are sex murders and aggression, mental disorders and crime, psychiatric aspects of epilepsy, and epileptoid violence. The first section of this book discusses extreme manifestations of sexual aggression and murder, the potential sex murderer, gynocide and unprovoked attacks on women, sexually motivated burglaries, and burglaries with sexual dynamics. The second section focuses on mental disorders and crime, the concept of psychopathic personalities, the pedophile offender, classification of offenders for prognostic and dispositional evaluation, patients who kill their physicians, the problem of conjugal paranoia, and the diagnosis and disposition of the paranoid marital partner. The third section explores the psychiatric and diagnostic problems in epilepsy, epileptic manifestations resembling psychiatric disorders, psychomotor paroxysms and manifestations of nonepileptic origin, and the social aspects of epilepsy. Case examples are used to illustrate specific points within various chapters. This book will make an important contribution in furthering the understanding of contemporary forensic issues, as well as the historic development of forensic psychiatric and psychological thoughts and practices. This unique and comprehensive text will prove invaluable to history buffs, forensic psychologists and psychiatrists, criminologists, legal professionals, and law enforcement personnel.