Rage dyscontrol, defined as rage outbursts that are strikingly disproportionate to the provoking stimulus, ranges in intensity from verbal abuse through to episodes of sufficient violence to cause significant property damage, injury, or death to others. The emergence and current status of rage dyscontrol as a distinct clinical entity are reviewed, a typology of dyscontrol constructed, and its known organic substrates described. The dyscontrol syndrome, shown to be unrelated to temporal lobe epilepsy, is then reviewed in relation to developmental antecedents on the one hand and a known history of traumatic brain injury on the other. Finally, the likely utility of rage dyscontrol as an extenuation in criminal cases is discussed in the light of a case history. The treatment of rage dyscontrol is considered in Part 2 of the article (this issue).
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