Shoplifting as Moral Insanity: Historical Perspectives on Kleptomania

Abstract

Kleptomania has long concerned retailers. First described in 1816, it has been a controversial topic among psychiatrists, legal authorities, retail store managers—and the opinionated public—ever since. Kleptomania is a good case illustration of the development of thought in marketing-related areas. The article presents an intellectual history of thought on kleptomania, critically examining why ideas about it developed, were challenged, and were in some cases modified over two centuries. Skeptics have decried kleptomania as an invalid psychiatric concept exploited in legal defenses of wealthy lady shoplifters. At the turn of the twentieth century, kleptomania was strongly linked with the rapidly blossoming department stores, and “department store kleptomaniacs” were a widely held social stereotype that had political implications. Organized thought on kleptomania has, over nearly two centuries, reflected and changed with dominant approaches to psychiatry in specific and social thought in general. Yet real progress has been made.