La psichiatria forense e il “vizio di mente”: criticità attuali e prospettive metodologiche

In the last decades the concept of « infirmity » has been much debated in connection with rules 88 and 89 of the Italian criminal code, fueled by the lack of a single shared interpretation of such expression, which essentially originates from the difficult relationship between law and psychiatry: the first one regards psychiatry as a stable and rational foundation for decision-making, the second one attempts to combine the uncertainties of its clinic dimensions with the needs of legal certainty. This discussion has led to unavoidable side effects involving the cooperation between scientific knowledge and the judge, who has gradually found himself torn between different orientations, with inevitable differences of interpretation and application of the law. In particular, following the epistemological-methodological evolution that has characterized the history of modern psychiatry, the jurisprudence has showed a sort of dichotomy about the the concept of infirmity. This development has undergone a major review by the United Sections of the Supreme Criminal Court, n. 9163/2005 which not only clarified the conflict about the interpretation of « infirmity », but also gave an opportunity to develop a systematic review of criminal responsibility. The Authors analyze, in particular, how this development has influenced forensic psychiatry as to provide pragmatic criteria for a methodology usable in practice by the experts in this difficult field of investigation.