KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

635

INSANITY

INSANITY

tal derangement is accompanied with more or less qf excitement. Sometimes the excitement amounts to a fury. The individual in such cas es is subject to hallucinations and illusions. He is impressed with the reality of events which have never occurred, and of things which do not exist, and acts more or less in conformity with his belief in these particulars. The mania may be general, and affect all or most of the op erations of the mind; or it may be partial, and be confined to particular subjects. In the^ lat ter case it ia generally termed 'monomania.'" In a more popular but less scientific sense, "mania" denotes a morbid or unnatural or ex cessive craving, issuing in impulses of such fix ity and intensity that they cannot be resisted by the patient in the enfeebled state of the will and blurred moral concepts which accompany the disease. It is used in this sense in such compounds as "homicidal mania," "dipsomania," and the like — Hypomania. A mild or slight ly developed form or type of mania —Mono mania. A perversion or derangement of the reason or understanding with reference to a single subject or small class of subjects, with considerable mental excitement and delusions, while, as to all matters outside the range of the peculiar infirmity, the intellectual faculties re main unimpaired and function normally. Hopps v. People, 31 111. 390, 83 Am. Dec. 231; In re Black's Estate, Myr. Prob. (Cal.) 27; Owing's Case, 1 Bland (Md.) 388, 17 Am. Dec. 311; Merritt v. State, 39 Tex. Cr. R. 70, 45 S. W. 21; In re Gannon's Will, 2 Misc. Rep. 329, 21 N. Y. Supp. 960.— Paranoia. Monomania in general, or the obsession of a delusion or sys tem of delusions which dominate without de stroying the mental capacity, leaving the patient sane as to all matters outside their particular range, though subject to perverted ideas, false beliefs, and uncontrollable impulses within that range; and particularly, the form of monomania where the delusion is as to wrongs, injuries, or persecution inflicted upon the patient and his consequently justifiable resentment or revenge. Winters v. State, 61 N. J. Law, 613, 41 Atl. 220; People v. Braun, 158 N. Y. 558, 53 N. B. 529; Flanagan v. State, 103 Ga. 619, 30 S. E. 550. Paranoia is called by Kraepelin "progres sive systematized insanity," because the delu sions of being wronged or of persecution and of excessive self-esteem develop quite slowly, with out independent disturbances of emotional life or of the will becoming prominent, and because there occurs regularly a mental working up of the delusion to form a delusionary view of the world,—in fact, a system,—leading to a derange ment of the stand-point which the patient takes up towards the events of life.— Homicidal mania. A form of mania in which the morbid state of the mind manifests itself in an irresist ible inclination or impulse to commit homicide, prompted usually by an insane delusion either as to the necessity of self-defense or the avenging of injuries, or as to the patient being the appoint ed instrument of a superhuman justice. Com. v. Sayre, 5 Wkly. Notes Cas. (Pa.) 425; Com. v. Mosler, 4 Pa. 266.— Methomania. An irre sistible craving for alcoholic or other intoxica ting liquors, manifested by the periodical re currence of drunken debauches. State v. Savage, 89 Ala. 1, 7 South. 183, 7L.R.A. 426 —Dipso mania. Practically the same thing as metho mania, except that the irresistible impulse to intoxication is extended by some writers to in clude the use of such drugs as opium or cocaine as well as alcohol. See State v. Reidell, 9 Houst. (Del) 470, 14 Atl. 550; Ballard v. State, 19 Neb. 609, 28 N. W. 271.— Mania a potn. Delirium tremens, or a species of tem porary insanity resulting as a secondary effect produced by the excessive and protracted indul gence in intoxicating liquors. See State v. Hur ley, Houst. Cr. Cas. (Del.) 28, 35 —Toxico mania. An excessive addiction to the use of toxic or poisonous drugs or other substances; a

form of mania or affective insanity characteriz ed by an irresistible impulse to indulgence in opium (> cocaine, chloral, alcohol, etc.— Mania fanatica. A form of insanity characterized by a morbid state of religious feeling. Ekin v. McCracken, 11 Phila. (Pa.) 540.— Sebastoma nia. Religious insanity; demonomania.— Me galomania. The so-called "delirium of gran deur" or "folie de grandeur;" a form of mania in which the besetting delusion of the patient is that he is some person of great celebrity or ex alted rank, historical or contemporary.— Klep tomania. A species (or symptom) of mania, consisting in an irresistible propensity to steal. Looney v. State, 10 Tex. App. 525, 38 Am. Rep. 646; State v. Reidell, 9 Houst. (Del.) 470, 14 Atl. 550— Pyromania. Incendiarism; a form of affective insanity in which the mania takes the form of an irresistible impulse to burn or set fire to things.— Oikei mania, a form of in sanity manifesting itself in a morbid state of the domestic affections, as an unreasonable dislike of wife or child without cause or provocation. Ekin v. McCracken, 11 Phila. (Pa.) 540.— Nym phomania. A form of mania characterized by a morbid, excessive, and uncontrollable craving for sexual intercourse. This term is applied only to women. The term for a corresponding mania in men is "satyriasis."— Erotomania. A form of mania similar to nymphomania, ex cept that the present term is applied to patients of both sexes, and that (according to some au thorities) it is applicable to all cases of exces sive sexual craving irrespective of origin; while nymphomania is restricted to cases where the disease is caused by a local disorder of the sex ual organs reacting on the brain. And it is to be observed that the term "erotomania" is now often used, especially by French writers, to describe a morbid propensity for "falling in love" or an exaggerated and excited condition of amativeness or love-sickness, which may af fect the general physical health, but is not necessarily correlated with any sexual craving, and which, though it may unnaturally color the imagination and distort the subject's view of life and affairs, does not at all amount to in sanity, and should not be so considered when it leads to crimes of violence, as in the too com mon case of a rejected lover who kills his mis tress.— Necrophilism. A form of affective in sanity manifesting itself in an unnatural and re volting fondness for corpses, the patient desir ing to be in their presence, to caress them, to exhume them, or sometimes to mutilate them, and even (in a form of sexual perversion) to violate them. Melancholia is a form of in sanity the characteristics of which are extreme mental depression, associated with delusions and hallucinations, the latter relating especially to the financial or social position of the patient or to impending or threatened dangers to his per son, property, or reputation, or issuing in dis torted conceptions of his relations to socioty or his family or of his rights and duties in general. Connecticut Mut. L. Ins. Co. v. Groom, 86 Pa. 92, 27 Am. Rep. 689; State v. Reidell, 9 Houst. (Del.) 470, 14 Atl. 551; People v. Krist, 168 N. Y. 19, 60 N. E. 1057. Hypochondria or hypochondriasis. A form of melancholia in which the patient has exaggerated or causeless fears concerning his health or suffers from imag inary disease. Toxiphobia. Morbid dread of being poisoned; a form of insanity manifesting itself by an excessive and unfounded apprehen sion of death by poison. Specific definitions and applications in law. There are numerous legal proceedings where insanity may be shown, and the rule for establishing mental capacity or the want of it varies according to the object or purpose of the proceeding. Among these may be enu merated the following: A criminal prosecu- Melancholia.