Wild Beasts and Idle Humors: The Insanity Defense from Antiquity to the Present

By Daniel N. Robinson

Book Overview

How does the law regard and define mental incompetence, when faced with the problem of meting out justice? To what extent has the law relied on extra-legal authorities - be they religious or scientific - to frame its own categories of mental incompetence and madness? Wild Beasts and Idle Humours takes us on a journey through the changing historical landscape of human nature and offers an unprecedented look at the legal conceptions of insanity from the pre-classical Greek world to the present. Although actual trial records are either totally lacking or incomplete until the 18th century, there are other sources from which the insanity defenses can be constructed.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674952898
• ISBN13: 9780674952898
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 299 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.3" x 6.0"