The Psychoanalytical Approach as a Contribution to the Assessment of Criminal Responsibility

Abstract

A psychoanalytically oriented method was used to explore the psychological dimensions of criminal responsibility and guilt. The sample consisted of 12 males and females with neurotic, psychopathic, and borderline character disturbances sent to the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Vrapce, Zagreb, Yugoslavia. These diagnostic categories represent the greatest problem in estimating accountability and criminal responsibility. In addition to trying to formulate psychoanalytic criteria for estimating criminal responsibility, this study aims at finding more reliable criteria for ascertaining dangerousness, prognosis, and indications for adequate treatment. It was found that the main criterion was an estimate of the ego's functions as they correspond with the legal formulation “capacity to understand one's own actions and control them.” Additional elements used in analysis included subjective and projected guilt. It is concluded that the degree of criminal responsibility for a particular act does not represent a more direct basis for determining punishment. This study also shows how transference-countertransference reactions can influence the process of expert testimony. Advantages and disadvantages of the psychoanalytically informed approach are weighed against more traditional assessment methods in forensic psychiatry.