The Volitional Rule, Personality Disorders and the Insanity Defense

Recently, both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Bar Association have adopted position statements on the insanity defense, recommending the abandonment of the volitional aspect of the legal standard. The authors believe that this reform is long overdue. Defendants whose diagnosis, based largely on inadequate behavior controls, is personality disorder may best be considered as having "non-exculpatory mental conditions." The problems created when such individuals enter the interface between psychiatry and the law is illustrated by reviewing the vicissitudes of thought relative to the antisocial personality. With the introduction of DSM-III, disorders of impulse control, and particularly pathological gambling, have been advanced in support of a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Acts simply not resisted may in fact be distinguishable from those which the authors consider truly irresistible, utilizing a framework presented here. Finally, it is concluded that legislation should be enacted specifically to eliminate conditions classified on the basis of disturbances of volition and/or behavior from the umbrella of exculpatory mental disorders.