Abstract
The use of recent psychiatric research in the defense of the `Unabomber' (United States vs. Theodore Kaczynski) is a compelling example of how the gap between research and practice can have profound consequences on the practice of forensic psychiatry, psychology and the judicial process. In this case, educating the lawyers and the court about the research on poor insight in schizophrenia changed the defense strategy and ultimately the course of the trial.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Amador XF, Strauss DH, Yale SA, Gorman JM: Awareness of Illness in Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 17:113–132, 1991.
Amador XF, Strauss DH. ''Poor insight in schizophrenia.'' Psychiatric Quarterly 64(4):305–318, 1993.
Amador XF, Strauss DH, Yale S, Gorman JM, Endicott J: ''Assessment of insight in psychosis.'' American Journal of Psychiatry 150(6):873–879, 1993.
Amador XF, Andreasen NC, Flaum M, Strauss DH, Yale SA, Clark S, Gorman JM: ''Awareness of illness in schizophrenia, schizoaffective and mood disorders.'' Archives of General Psychiatry 51(10):826–836, 1994.
Amador XF, Harkavy Friedman J, Kasapis C, Yale SA, Flaum M, &; Gorman JM: ''Suicidal behavior and its relationship to awareness of illness.'' American Journal of Psychiatry 153:1185–1188, 1996.
Amador XF, Seckinger RA: ''The assessment of insight.'' Psychiatric Annals 27(12):798–805, 1997.
Amador XF, Barr WB, Economou A, Mallin E, Marcinko L, Yale S: ''Awareness deficits in neurological disorders and schizophrenia.'' Schizophrenia Research 24(1-2):96–97, 1997.
Amador XF, Gorman JM: ''Psychopathologic domains and insight in schizophrenia.'' Psychiatric Clinics of North America 20:27–42, 1998.
World Health Organization. Report of the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia. Geneva: World Health Organization Press, 1973.
Wilson WH, Ban TA, Guy W: Flexible System Criteria in Chronic Schizophrenia. Comprehensive Psychiatry 27:259–265, 1986.
Caracci G, Mukherjee S, Roth S, Decina P: Subjective Awareness of Abnormal Involuntary Movements in Chronic Schizophrenic Patients. American Journal of Psychiatry 147:295–298, 1990.
Arango C, Adami H, Sherr JD, Thaker GK, Carpenter WT, Jr: Relationship of awareness of dyskinesia in schizophrenia to insight into mental illness. American Journal of Psychiatry 156(7):1097–9, 1999.
Alexopoulos GS: Lack of complaints in schizophrenics with tardive dyskinesia. Journal of Nervous &; Mental Disease 167(2):125–7, 1979 Feb.
Sandyk R, Kay SR, Awerbuch GI: Subjective awareness of abnormal involuntary movements in schizophrenia. International Journal of Neuroscience 69(1-4):1–20, 1993.
McEvoy JP, Freter S, Everett G, Geller JL, Appelbaum P, Apperson LJ, Roth L: Insight and the Clinical Outcome of Schizophrenics. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders 177:48–51, 1989.
Heinrichs DW, Cohen, BP, Carpenter WT, Jr: Early Insight and the Management of Schizophrenic Decompensation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 173:133–138, 1985.
McGlashan TH, Carpenter WT, Jr: Does Attitude Toward Psychosis Relate to Outcome? American Journal of Psychiatry 138:797–801, 1981.
Kasapis C, Amador XF, Yale SA, Strauss DH, Gorman JM: Poor insight in schizophrenia: Neuropsychological and defensive aspects. Schizophrenia Research 15:123, 1995.
Smith TE, Hull JW, Santos L: The relationship between symptoms and insight in schizophrenia: a longitudinal perspective. Schizophrenia Research 33(1-2):63–7 1998.
McEvoy JP, Apperson LJ, Applebaum PS, Ortlip P, Brecosky J, Hammill K: Insight in schizophrenia. Its relationship to acute psychopathology. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders 177:43–47, 1989.
Young DA, Davila R, Scher R: Unawareness of Illness and Neuropsychological performance in chronic schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 10:117–124, 1993.
Sandyk R, Kay SR, Awerbuch GI: Subjective awareness of abnormal involuntary movements in schizophrenia. International Journal of Neuroscience 69(1-4):1–20, 1993.
Lysaker P, Bell M, Milstein R, Bryson G, Beam-Goulet J: Insight and psy chosocial treatment compliance in schizophrenia. Psychiatry 57:307–31, 1994.
Kasapis C, Amador XF, Yale SA, Strauss DH, Gorman JM: Poor insight in schizophrenia: Neuropsychological and defensive aspects. Schizophrenia Research 15:123, 1995.
McEvoy JP, Hartman M, Gottlieb D, Godwin S, Apperson LJ, Wilson W: Common sense, insight, neuropsychological test performance in schizophrenia patients. Schizophrenia Bulletin 22(4):635–41, 1996.
Voruganti LNP, Heslegrave RJ, Awad AG: Neurocognitive correlates of positive and negative syndromes in schizophrenia. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 42(10):1066–1071, 1997.
Lysaker PH, Bell MD, Bryson G, Kaplan E: Neurocognitive function and insight in schizophrenia: support for an association with impaitments in executive function but not with impairments in global function. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 97(4):297–301, 1998.
Young DA, Zakzanis KK, Bailey C, Davila R, Griese J, Sartory G, Thom A: Further parameters of insight and neuropsychological deficit in schizophrenia and other chronic mental disease. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 186(1):44–50, 1998.
Lysaker PH, Bell MD: Impaired insight in schizophrenia: advances from psychosocial treatment research. Insight &; Psychosis, Amador XF &; David AS, eds. Oxford University Press. 1998.
Morgan KD, Vearnals S, Hutchinson G, Orr KGD, Greenwood K, Sharpley M, Mallet R, Morris R, David A, Leff J, Murray RM: Insight, ethnicity and neuropsychology in first onset psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 36:144 1999.
Morgan KD, Orr KGD, Hutchinson G, Vearnals S, Greenwood K, Sharpley M, Mallet R, Morris R, David A, Leff J, Murray RM: Insight and neuropsychology in first onset schizophrenia and other psychoses. Schizophrenia Research, 36:145 1999.
Smith TE, Hull JW, Goodman M, Hedayat-Harris A, Willson DF, Israel LM, Munich L: The relative influences of symptoms, insight and neurocognition on social adjustment in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 187(2):102–108, 1999.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Amador, X.F., Paul-Odouard, R. Defending the Unabomber: Anosognosia in Schizophrenia. Psychiatr Q 71, 363–371 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004688324430
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004688324430