CASE STUDY NOT GUILTY by Reason of The majority of people with serious psy- chological disorders are not dangerous to others. Some, however, do commit violent crimes. Of these, some are found not guilty of the crimes of which they are accused “by reason of insanity.” Typically, these people are sent to psychiatric institutions instead of prison. They may be released when they are John Hinckley Jr. was arrested immediately after his judged no longer to be a threat to others. attempted assassination of President Reagan on March 30, 1981. A well-known use of the insanity plea occurred in the case of John Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate President Ronald from which she hoped to save them. When Reagan in 1981. Not only did Hinckley Yates went to trial, the jury rejected the attempt to murder the president, but he did insanity defense and convicted her of first- so in front of millions of television witnesses. degree murder. However, Yates won a new Nevertheless, Hinckley was found not guilty trial in 2006, and this time was found not by reason of insanity after expert witnesses guilty by reason of insanity. testified that he had the serious psychologi- In using an insanity defense, lawyers cal disorder called schizophrenia. apply a modified version of the M’Naghten Another famous case is that of Andrea Rule, which states that if it can be proved Yates, who on June 20, 2001, drowned all that at the time of committing a criminal act five of her young children. Yates freely a person either did not understand the nature confessed to the murders. She told a psy- of the act or did not know that it was wrong, chiatrist that she feared her children were then the person is insane and not responsible “doomed to perish in the fires of hell”—a fate for the act. The M’Naghten Rule goes back to 1843, when a Scot named Daniel M’Naghten tried to kill the British prime minister, Sir Robert Peel. M’Naghten believed that he was the target of an international conspiracy that included Sir Robert and the pope. In the assassination attempt, M’Naghten killed Peel’s secretary instead of the prime minis- ter. M’Naghten was arrested and tried but was judged not guilty. The jury declared that M’Naghten was insane and thus not respon- sible for the crime. At her second trial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty Typically, when an accused person pleads by reason of insanity. insanity, prosecuting attorneys try to show 496 CHAPTER 18 Watch the Video HAPTER 1188 Explore topics on psychological disorders in CCHAPTE the United States. PPSYCHOLOGICALSYCHOLOGICAL that the accused was sane at the time of the crime, while the defense tries to prove that the accused was not. Both rely on the testi- DDISORDERSISORDERS mony of expert witnesses, usually psycholo- gists or psychiatrists. Many people claim that the insanity defense allows criminals literally to “get Chapter at a Glance away with murder.” However, the defense is actually used rarely and is often unsuccess- SECTION 1: Understanding Psychological ful. Recent changes have made it more diffi- Disorders cult to use the insanity plea successfully. For ■ Psychological disorders are behavior patterns or mental processes example, it is now up to the defense to prove that cause serious personal suffering or interfere with a person’s that the defendant’s mental illness is one ability to cope with everyday life. that qualifies under the insanity plea. ■ Psychological disorders are classified in the Diagnostic and “Insanity” is a legal concept, not a psy- Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also known as the DSM. chological one, and to be legally usable, it must be all or nothing—one is either sane or SECTION 2: Anxiety and Mood Disorders insane. In reality, most psychological disor- ■ Anxiety disorders occur when people feel fear or nervousness out ders are a matter of degree. The distinction of proportion to the actual threat. is important. One can be mildly depressed, ■ Mood disorders are characterized by mood changes that are inap- for example, but according to the law, one propriate for the situation to which they are responding. cannot be mildly insane. Because of the insanity plea’s all-or-nothing nature, decid- SECTION 3: Dissociative and Somatoform ing on someone’s sanity can be a very diffi- Disorders cult decision for judges and juries. ■ Dissociative disorders are characterized by the separation of cer- Our legal system requires a wide range tain personality components or mental processes from conscious of people to make decisions about the mental thought. health of others. How equipped are jurors ■ Somatoform disorders are expressed in the form of actual physi- to make these decisions? How informed are cal symptoms. we about what separates mental illness SECTION 4: Schizophrenia from mental health? For example, the case ■ Schizophrenia is usually considered the most serious psychologi- of Andrea Yates poses some basic questions cal disorder and can be very disabling. that are not easily answered: Is a woman who drowns all her children to “save” them ■ Schizophrenia is characterized by a loss of contact with reality. automatically insane, even though she knew ■ The three types of schizophrenia are paranoid, disorganized, and that her action was wrong in the eyes of the catatonic schizophrenia. law? Just what is mental illness? SECTION 5: Personality Disorders ■ Personality disorders are patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt What do you think? social life or work and may distress the affected individual. ■ Four common personality disorders are paranoid, schizoid, anti- 1. In general, what criteria must a defendant meet to be social, and avoidant. ruled legally insane? 2. Do you support the use of the insanity defense? Why or why not? PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS 497 SSEECCTIONTION 1 UUnderstandingnderstanding PPsychologicalsychological DisordersDisorders Before You Read Use a graphic Main Idea Reading Focus Vocabulary organizer like Psychological disorders are 1. What are psychological psychological disorders this one to take notes on relatively common. They disorders, and how common culture-bound psychological disorders. cause personal suffering are they? syndromes Psychological to millions of people and 2. What are the four major symp- Disorders interfere with their ability to toms that can help identify cope with everyday life. psychological disorders? Identifying Classifying What they are 3. How do psychologists classify disorders disorders psychological disorders? Misunderstanding Mental Illness Why were people with mental illnesses seen as criminals? Until about a cen- tury ago, mental illness was a mystery. To both the public and to the medical profession, people who behaved strangely were often seen as evil or cursed, not ill. Doctors sometimes proposed causes for the illnesses that we now consider absurd, such as reading too many novels. Because they did not understand mental disorders, doctors and other officials often treated mental patients very harshly, severely restricting their freedom and even punishing them as if they were criminals. One common method of control was the straitjacket, which is a garment with extra-long sleeves that wrap around the patient’s body. The straitjacket was actually more humane than the ropes and metal chains with which some patients were shackled. Now we know that psychological disorders are indeed illnesses. Mental health professionals have described almost 400 such disorders. Their causes, however, are sometimes disputed. You will read more about psychological disorders in this section. This straitjacketed mental patient was photographed in 1946. 498 CHAPTER 18 What Are Psychological Disorders? important here, because diagnosing an indi- vidual with a psychological disorder is often You have already learned that psychology is difficult, and reaching a correct diagnosis is the scientific study of behavior and mental not always a simple process. processes. PPsychologicalsychological disordersdisorders are behav- Understanding However, psychologists generally use sev- ior patterns or mental processes that cause eral criteria to determine whether a person’s serious personal suffering or interfere with a behavior indicates the presence of a psycho- ACADEMIC person’s ability to cope with everyday life. Psychological Disorders logical disorder. These criteria include how VOCABULARY Many people believe that psychological dis- typical the behavior is of people in general, criteria the stan- orders are uncommon, affecting relatively few whether the behavior is maladaptive, whether dards on which a individuals. It is true that the great majority judgment or deci- the behavior causes the individual emotional of people are never admitted to mental hospi- sion may be based discomfort, and whether the behavior is tals, and most people never seek the help of socially unacceptable. psychologists or psychiatrists. And although many people have relatives they consider INTERACTIVE eccentric, few people have family members they consider to be truly abnormal. Statistically Estimates suggest, however, that about one in four adults in the United States have Sp ea k i n g... experienced some type of psychological disor- der. In addition to the many people with sub- stance abuse problems, 26 percent of people in the United States experience some type of psychological disorder in a given year. In any given month, the figure is approximately 13 percent. For people aged 15–44, psychological disorders are the leading cause of disability in the United States. Reading Check Summarize What is a common misconception about psychological disorders? Psychological Disorders in the United States Drug and alcohol addiction, depression, and anxiety disorders are Identifying Psychological Disorders the most common psychological disorders. Deciding whether particular behaviors, thoughts, or feelings are “normal” or “abnor- 26.2% Percentage of American adults who suffer mal” can be difficult. What is normal is often from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year equated with what is average for the majority 6% Percentage of Americans who suffer from a seri- of people.