Possible reasons why certain epileptics commit unlawful acts during or directly after seizures.
Courts have accepted that epileptics sometimes commit unlawful acts as a result of an epileptic seizure. Reasons for this unlawful behaviour may be found in the interictal, ictal and post-ictal phases of the seizure. Interictal aspects which are relevant to the form of epileptic automatism may be the person's natural tendencies, the same psychodynamic factors which determine the contents of dreams, the person's social background of violence and the contents of a person's thoughts immediately before a seizure. Ictal aspects include the specific part of the brain from which the seizure originates, the loss of integration of incoming sensorial stimuli with motor-emotional output, the loss of higher control associated with a reversion to primitive automatic behaviour and the emergence of repressed feelings and aggressive instincts. Post-ictal violent behaviour may stem from the epileptic's misinterpretation of well-meant attempts by bystanders to protect him or her against the consequences of his or her confused conduct--and is usually characterized by a clouded consciousness, paranoid ideas and hallucinations.
University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
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van Rensburg
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Gagiano
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Verschoor
D001332:Automatism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007298:Insanity Defense; D016365:Liability, Legal; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology