Abstract This paper takes a look at the mental illness, kleptomania. According to the paper, kleptomania belongs to the group of impulse-control disorders. The paper defines kleptomania as an impulse or uncontrollable urge to take others' belongings, and is considered an act of stealing.
Outline:
What is Kleptomania?
The Signs and Symptoms of Kleptomania Causes of Kleptomania Diagnosis of Kleptomaniac
What is the Possible Treatment for Kleptomania?
Statistics of Committing the Crime
From the Paper "Kleptomania can be easily recognized by the psychologist if the person will allow thorough evaluation. Psychologists used to cure this disorder by finding the cause and what motivates the person to do such act. If the person were proven to be suffering from impulsive-control disorder - such as kleptomania - a modification of behavior will be suggested and there are medicines available that will help alleviate the patient's kleptomaniac condition. Other treatment approaches involve seeing the theft as an unconscious process and analyzing it as such may assist in gaining insight and eventually extinguishing the behavior (Psychology Today, 2004). This kind if evaluation and treatment is easier and let the patient realizes that overcoming that kind if disorder is not easy but he must do it in order to be accepted by the society. "
Abstract This paper explains that kleptomania is an impulse-control disorder in which the person has irresistible impulses to steal objects that are not needed for personal use or for their monetary value. The author points out that, because kleptomania appears to be associated more with character or personality issues than with simple depression, combination therapy seems to be the best therapeutic approach. The paper relates that the full impact of kleptomania on stores is not understood because apprehension rates for shoplifting are low and store owners turn over only twenty-four percent of the perpetrators they catch. The paper reports that studies indicate that shoplifting is not confined to specific gender, race, age or social class; however, they are disproportionately young and female.
From the Paper "Various disorders such as mood disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse and impulse control disorder can be linked to kleptomania. In the "American Journal of Psychiatry", August 2003, The article 'Psychopathology and Co-morbidity of Psychiatric Disorders in Patients with Kleptomania' discusses a study conducted that compared patients with kleptomania, patients with alcohol abuse or dependence, and psychiatric patients without impulse-control disorders or substance-related disorders on several key psychopathological dimensions."
Abstract This paper summarizes and reviews an article entitled, "Psychopathology and Comorbidity of Psychiatric Disorders in Patients with Kleptomania" by Franck Bayle and Herve Caci. The paper explains that the article is about a study that compared patients with kleptomania to patients with alcoholism or dependence and to psychiatric patients with no-impulse-control disorders.
From the Paper "In closing, implusitivity remains the major psychopathological feature of kleptomania. People with kleptomania share serious psychopathology and have a very low rate of co-morbid substance related disorders. The information process and the psychopathology underlying impulsitivity may be gained from studies involving them."
Abstract The paper explains the symptoms and causes of the disease. A case study is presented and discussed. The paper discusses the different treatments currently used depending on the severity of the disease. The paper estimates how many people suffer from the disease.
From the Paper "Kleptomania, which comes from the Greek meaning, "stealing madness", is a disease that is well known, but not well understood. It first appeared sometime in the 19th century when it was noticed that many rich and noble people were stealing things they did not need or could afford to buy. Many people mistakenly call a shoplifter a kleptomaniac, but there is a difference between a petty thief and a kleptomaniac."
Abstract Elaine Abelson's 1992 book, "When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store", is an excellent sociological analysis of a particular type of crime, that of shoplifting by middle-class women. The paper shows that this category of crime is often presented as puzzling, even as irrational. Why should such women shoplift when they could easily afford to buy the usually inexpensive items that they steal? The paper discusses the new theories and medical diagnoses that have been developed to explain this phenomenon, including the idea of kleptomania.
From the Paper "Middle-class white women (although the book does not dwell very much on the issue of race, it is clear that standards of who could steal what were very much race-based as well as class-based) were given a moral and often even a legal "out" when caught with stolen goods: They could plead that they were affected by the incapacitating illness of kleptomania. But this new form of irresistible urge was in many ways ? or at least Abelson argues ? an ad hoc invention by psychiatrists along with the women who were their patients. This was not a case of mental illness in the most limited clinical sense. Rather both shoplifting and kleptomania can both be seen as the symptoms of the social pressures that were squeezing women."
Abstract The paper examines Elaine Abelson's "When Ladies Go a-Thieving" that addresses the phenomenon of middle class Victorian women who shoplifted in the late 1800s. The paper looks at Abelson's discussion on what caused this phenomenon and how society reacted. The paper includes a personal reflection on the book.
From the Paper "Interestingly, most of the women caught shoplifting were middle-class women who could afford at least some of the items they stole. The author writes, "In a period of expanding possibilities for educated women, almost all the women in this sample were traditional housewives: home and family were their occupation" (Abelson 1992, 9). These were women who led busy and active lives, and enjoyed shopping, as well. Because these middle-class women were "respectable" in the eyes of society, when they were caught shoplifting, society had to find an acceptable reason for their behavior, and the idea of mental instability seemed to fit that bill. "
