Abstract
The following article was adapted from the first annual Paul Mendelsohn Memorial Lecture, delivered at Tufts Medical School in Boston. Dr. Mendelsohn, a psychiatric resident, was killed while jogging by a deranged motorist who drove onto the sidewalk and struck him down.
The circumstances of this tragedy provided the theme for this essay. Can psychiatry explain such crimes? Do the experts' answers resolve the question of criminal responsibility? The insanity defense is conceptualized as three domains: society's demand for retribution, psychiatric expertise, and legal rules. Three cases are discussed that indicate why “scientific” psychiatry should not expect to dominate the other domains.
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