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Medico-Legal Aspect of Disturbance of Mentality: Prepared By: Humawid, Francis Louie A Ponce, Lica Marie S.

This document discusses several concepts related to disturbance of mentality from medical, sociological, and legal perspectives. It outlines how insanity can impact various legal situations like marriage annulment, will execution, criminal liability, and more. The document also discusses how to determine if claimed insanity is real or feigned, and notes several conditions like somnambulism, semisomnolence, hypnotism, and delirium that can simulate disturbed mentality. Finally, it states that mental condition plays a vital role in courts, as sentencing offenders with mental health problems requires considering many different factors.

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55 views

Medico-Legal Aspect of Disturbance of Mentality: Prepared By: Humawid, Francis Louie A Ponce, Lica Marie S.

This document discusses several concepts related to disturbance of mentality from medical, sociological, and legal perspectives. It outlines how insanity can impact various legal situations like marriage annulment, will execution, criminal liability, and more. The document also discusses how to determine if claimed insanity is real or feigned, and notes several conditions like somnambulism, semisomnolence, hypnotism, and delirium that can simulate disturbed mentality. Finally, it states that mental condition plays a vital role in courts, as sentencing offenders with mental health problems requires considering many different factors.

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LUI
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 31

Medico-legal Aspect of Disturbance of Mentality

Prepared by:

Humawid, Francis Louie A

Ponce, Lica Marie S. .

Mental health has a great effect in every situation we are into. Insanity as
to Sociological Concept, it is an inability through mental causes to adapt oneself
to the ordinary environment. It is the loss of power of the individual to regulate
his actions and conduct according to the rules of society in which he moves. The
Medical Concept states that it is a prolonged departure of the individual from his
natural mental state arising from bodily disease. As to the Concept of Law, it
covers nothing more than the relation of a person and the particular act which is
the subject of judicial investigation. It is really important to determine if a person
had such insanity. This will restrict and limits him to act - where insanity at the
time of marriage is a ground for annulment of marriage, where a testator must
be of sound mind at the time of execution of a will, where a witness must be of
sound mind, where an insane cannot give consent to a contract, where no parent
or guardian shall be liable for damages due to his insanity, and where insanity
exempts a person from criminal liability.

It is very important to know if the insanity is real or that someone is only


feigning in order for him/her not to be convicted. Feigned insanity develops
suddenly while true insanity develops insidiously, usually with the observance of
some predisposing to an exciting cause if careful history of the case is taken.
There is no peculiar facial expression in feigned insanity which is commonly
observed in true insanity. Symptoms of insanity may only be observed in feigned
insanity when he is conscious that he is under observation and becomes normal
when he is alone and unobserved. There is such remission of symptoms in true
insanity. In feigned insanity the symptoms may be complete, numerous and may
clinically refer to a specific clinical disease. In true insanity, although in some
instances the symptoms may not refer to a specific clinical disease, there is more
tendency to point to a specific clinical entity. Violent exertion of feigned insanity
usually leads to an early exhaustion while in true insanity the patient can
withstand violent exertion without any sign of exhaustion and fatigue. A feigned
insane usually observes rules of personal hygiene and does not look dirty and
filthy. A true insane is filthy, dresses dirtily and does not observe hygiene. A sane
man is assumed to be wholly responsible for the consequence of his criminal act.
A person who commits a criminal act is presumed to be sane. The burden of
proof lies on the accused to prove that he is not sane and cannot be held
responsible for his criminal act. The crime is always considered to be an affair of
the mind as well as the body and to make an act or omission of a crime, there
must be a criminal act (actus reus) and a criminal mind (mens rea). This is
inconsonance with the legal maxim that "actus facit reum nisi mens sit rea"
(There cannot be a guilty act unless there is a guilty mind).

The Court must become aware of the mental condition of the person
presented. Any party in a proceeding may present evidences to show the mental
condition of a person. He who alleges something must prove the same by
presentation of evidence in support of his allegation. In a criminal proceeding
wherein the defense of insanity is invoked, the party must present proofs that
the accused is insane and does not know the nature and quality of his act. In the
probate of a will, the petitioner must present evidence to show that the testator
is of a sound and disposing mind at the time of execution of a will. Upon motion
of one of the parties, the court may issue an order to submit a person to a physical
and mental examination.

Malingering is the feigning or simulation of a disease or injury


characterized by ostentation, exaggeration and inconsistency to avoid military or
naval training, to avoid court summons, to defense himself/herself from a
criminal prosecution, to increase civil liability, and to promulgate sympathy.
There is no specific test for a specific form of malingering. The test applicable
depends upon the demand of the occasion considering the attitude of the subject
and the nature of the malingering.

There are other conditions manifesting or simulating disturbance of


mentality. Once of which is Somnambulism. A somnambulist might be
concentrated in a particular train of idea or obsessed by certain thoughts which
baffled his mind that he tried to execute it while in the state of sleep. He may
commit the crime of murder, infanticide, or parricide while under the influence
of the fit. A somnambulist has no recollection of the events occurring during the
fit and in several courts of different countries somnambulists are exempted from
criminal liability. Other condition is Semisomnolence or Somnolencia. A person
is in a semisomnolence state when he is half asleep or in a condition between
sleep and waking. A person may be suddenly aroused and may unconsciously
commit a criminal act, like murder, infanticide or parricide, or some other crimes,
while his mind is at the state of confusion. Hypnotism or Mesmerism can
manifest or simulate disturbance of mentality. A person is made unconscious by
the suggestive influence of the hypnotist. He may commit a criminal act while
under the influence of hypnotism which he may not be capable of doing while
under a normal state. Delirium is a state of confusion of the mind. It is
characterized by incoherent speech, hallucination, illusions, delusions,
restlessness, and apparently purposeless motions. A person may, when under the
state of delirium, commit a crime.

Mental condition plays a vital role in courts. Courts have noted that
sentencing offenders with mental health problems is inevitably difficult. Many
different sentencing considerations must be taken into account, some of which
pull in different directions.

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