Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T11:16:14.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An International Swindler [La Truffatrice intronazionale]. (Riv. Mens. di Psich. Forense, Anno 1, 1899.) Bianchi, L.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

Extract

This is a medico-legal report on the condition of a lady arrested for repeated acts of fraud and theft. Her history is of interest. During the past twenty years she has been under treatment in Camberwell and Banstead Asylums in this country, in three asylums in America, and in many on the Continent. She was of good family (with a marked predisposition to phthisis and nervous disease) and highly educated. She was the authoress of two novels of the decadent type, which caused some talk when they were published in 1892. The chief difficulty in deciding the question of her responsibility arose from the largely negative results of her examination. The reports sent from the different institutions were vague and unsatisfactory, and no definite diagnosis had evidently been possible. Morphinism, hallucinations of hearing, and tendency to suicide were facts, however, stated in different reports. From the history and the great variety of the symptoms of her different illnesses, Professor Bianchi came to the conclusion that her condition had an hysterical basis, and that she was not responsible. This finding was accepted by the Tribunal. Subsequent symptoms also confirmed this diagnosis.

Type
Epitome of Current Literature
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1902 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.