title: [Penal responsibility and the unconscious conflict].
abstract: Although the same model of the delinquent's penal responsibility still exists in law as well as in psychiatry, it is rapidly giving way to the concept of personality. Moreover, the psychoanalytical model is currently being used. The sole point of reference used by the psychiatrist is his relationship with the delinquent. He thus constructs a "new history" for the delinquent. This psycho-dynamic approach to the delinquent makes us formulate two fundamental objections: 1) It often is forgotten that the Freudian topical approach and its instances of personality are metaphorical. Out of context, that is of a relationship in time and space, it becomes void of meaning. Thus, the use of psychoanalytical concepts is epistemologically inacceptable. 2) Psychoanalytical theory, on a par with all systems of thought, has constituted its own system of values. Thus, neurotic structures, being nearer to that of the expert himself, take a privileged position. To summarize, it is the author's purpose to show that intra-psychic conflicts cannot be reduced to inter-personnel conflicts, most of all not in the field of crime.
mesh_terms: D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010551:Personality; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory
vernacular_title: La responsabilité pénale et le conflit inconscient.