nach oben

Psychiatric Quarterly

Erschienen in:

01.06.2008 | Original Paper

Examining Harry Thaw’s “Brain-Storm” Defense: APA and ANA Presidents as Expert Witnesses in a 1907 Trial

verfasst von: Emil R. Pinta

Erschienen in: Psychiatric Quarterly | Ausgabe 2/2008

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten

Abstract

In 1907, Harry K. Thaw, son of a railroad multi-millionaire, stood trial for shooting and killing architect Stanford White during the performance of a Broadway musical. The defense claimed that Thaw had experienced a “brain storm” causing temporary insanity. The brain-storm defense was ridiculed by professional groups, the public and the press. However, the defense experts were all respected leaders in their fields. They included five past or future presidents of the American Psychiatric Association and American Neurological Association. With no standard terminology in 1907, the much-maligned brain-storm diagnosis was in many respects an appropriate term for a sudden, drastic and temporary defect of reasoning having a physical cause. In spite of a strict test for mental nonresponsibility, the jury did not return a murder verdict.

Mooney MM: Evelyn Nesbit and Stanford White: Love and death in the Gilded Age. New York, W. Morrow, 1976

Baker PR: Stanny: The Gilded Life of Stanford White. New York, Macmillan, 1989

Nesbit E: Prodigal Days: The Untold Story. New York, J. Messner, 1934. Reprint, edited by DD Paul, 2004

Mackenzie FA: The Trial of Harry Thaw. London, Geoffrey Bles, 1928. Reprint Holmes Beach FL, Gaunt, 2000

Umphrey MM: Dialogics of legal meaning: spectacular trials, the unwritten law and narratives of criminal responsibility. Law & Society Review 33:393–423, 1999CrossRef

Ireland RM: Insanity and the unwritten law. American Journal of Legal History 32:157–172, 1988CrossRef

Keedy ER: Irresistible impulse as a defense in the criminal law. University of Pennsylvania Law Review 100:977–979, 1952CrossRef

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index. Available at http://www.bls.gov/cpi/ Accessed 6/07

Burnham JC: Jelliffe: American Psychoanalyst and Physician: His Correspondence with Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung. Edited by W. McGuire, Chicago, University of Chicago, 1983

10.

Barton WE: The History and Influence of the American Psychiatric Association. Washington DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1987, p. 111

11.

O’Conner R: Courtroom Warrior: The Combative Career of William Travers Jerome. Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1963

12.

Pilgrim CW: The care and treatment of the insane in the state of New York. American Journal of Insanity 68:1–13, 1911

13.

Polk’s Medical Register and Directory of North America. Chicago, R.L. Polk Co., 1908

14.

MacDonald CF: The trial, execution, autopsy and mental status of Leon F. Czolgosz, alias Fred Nieman, the assassin of President McKinley. American Journal of Insanity 58:369–386, 1902

15.

Wagner CG: Recent trends in psychiatry. American Journal of Insanity 74:1–14, 1917

16.

New York Times, 2/12/1907, p. 2

17.

New York Times, 3/20/1907, p. 2

18.

Buchanan A: Psychiatric evidence on the ultimate issue. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 34:14–21, 2006PubMed

19.

Finkel NJ: Insanity on Trial. New York, Plenum, 1988

20.

New York Times, 2/13/1907, p. 3

21.

Washington Post, 3/10/1907, p. 3

22.

Oxford English Dictionary. vol 2. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 481

23.

Gould GM: An Illustrated Dictionary of Medicine, Biology and Allied Sciences. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1894, p. 233

24.

Little M: William James and the noun brainstorm. Notes and Queries 39:187, 1992PubMed

25.

New York Times, 3/15/1907, p. 2

26.

MacDonald CF: The ethical aspects of expert testimony in relation to the plea of insanity as a defense to an indictment for crime. American Journal of Insanity 67:241–55, 1910

27.

New York Times, 3/16/1907, p. 2

28.

Krafft-Ebing R von: Text-Book of Insanity Based on Clinical Observations for Practitioners and Students of Medicine, trans. CG Chaddock. Philadelphia, FA Davis, 1904

29.

New York Times, 3/19/1907, pp. 1–2

30.

New York Times, 3/20/1907, p.2

31.

Ackerman RH: Graeme M. Hammond and the ANA. Annals of Neurology 32:224, 1992PubMedCrossRef

32.

New York Times, 10/31/44, p. 19

33.

Parsons FW: Charles W. Pilgrim. American Journal of Insanity 91:234–37, 1934

34.

White WA: William Alanson White: The Autobiography of a Purpose. New York, Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1938

35.

Campbell RJ: Psychiatric Dictionary. New York, Oxford University, 1996, p. 579

36.

Langford G: The Murder of Stanford White. New York, Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1962, p. 196

37.

Ray I: A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity. Boston, Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1838, pp. 186–234

38.

Woodward SB: Homicidal impulse. American Journal of Insanity 1:323–26, 1845

39.

Zilboorg G: Legal aspects of psychiatry, in One Hundred Years of American Psychiatry. Edited by JK Hall. New York, Columbia University, 1944, p. 551

40.

Spiegel AD, Spiegel MS: Not guilty by reason of paroxysmal insanity: the “mad” doctor vs. “common sense” doctors in an 1865 trial. Psychiatric Quarterly 62:51–66, 1991PubMedCrossRef

41.

Chapin JB: The insanity defense for crime. American Journal of Insanity 66:71–82, 1909

42.

Dain N: Concepts of Insanity in the United States, 1789–1865. New Brunswick NJ, Rutgers University, 1964

43.

Rutter HC: Manual of Insanity with Especial Reference to Criminal Responsibility. Columbus OH, Midland, 1905

44.

Defense of insanity in criminal cases and medical expert testimony (editorial). American Lawyer 15:309, 1907

45.

Somerville HM: A judicial view. American Lawyer 15:309–310, 1907

46.

Cobb IS: Exit Laughing. Garden City NY, Garden City, 1942, p. 230

47.

Hamilton AM: An expert’s view. American Lawyer 15:311, 1907

48.

Shorter E: A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1997, pp. 106–107

49.

White WA: Outlines of Psychiatry. Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series No. 1. New York, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co., 1907

50.

Meyer A: Movement for a change in statistics. Seventeenth Annual Report of the State Commission in Lunacy, Sept. 30, 1905, in Winters EE, editor: The Collected Papers of Adolf Meyer, vol. 2. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1952, pp.144–45

51.

American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 1st ed. Washington DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1952

52.

White WA: Expert testimony and the alienist. New York Medical Journal 88:150–54, 1908

53.

Evans BD: Court testimony of alienists. American Journal of Insanity 66:83–109, 1909

54.

Perlin ML: Law and Mental Disability. Charlottesville, Michie, 1995, p. 577

55.

Dershowitz AM: The Abuse Excuse. Boston, Little Brown and Co., 1994

56.

Wertham F: The catathymic crisis. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 37: 974–78, 1937

57.

Menninger K: The Vital Balance, New York, Viking Press, 1963, pp. 226–229

58.

American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed. Washington DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1980

59.

New York Times, 1/24/1908, p. 2

60.

New York Times, 1/28/1908, p. 3

61.

New York Times, 1/29/1908, p. 5

62.

New York Times, 6/13/24, p. 17

63.

New York Times, 2/23/47, p. 53

64.

Los Angeles Herald, 1/3/26, p. 1

65.

Lessard S: The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family. New York, Delta, 1996, p. 304

66.

New York Times, 1/19/67, p. 1

Titel: Examining Harry Thaw’s “Brain-Storm” Defense: APA and ANA Presidents as Expert Witnesses in a 1907 Trial
verfasst von: Emil R. Pinta
Publikationsdatum: 01.06.2008
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Psychiatric Quarterly / Ausgabe 2/2008
Print ISSN: 0033-2720
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-6709
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-007-9054-y

Neu im Fachgebiet Psychiatrie

Demenzkranke durch Antipsychotika vielfach gefährdet

23.04.2024 Demenz Nachrichten

Wenn Demenzkranke aufgrund von Symptomen wie Agitation oder Aggressivität mit Antipsychotika behandelt werden, sind damit offenbar noch mehr Risiken verbunden als bislang angenommen.

Weniger postpartale Depressionen nach Esketamin-Einmalgabe

23.04.2024 Depression antepartal oder postpartal Nachrichten

Bislang gibt es kein Medikament zur Prävention von Wochenbettdepressionen. Das Injektionsanästhetikum Esketamin könnte womöglich diese Lücke füllen.

„Psychotherapie ist auch bei sehr alten Menschen hochwirksam!“

22.04.2024 DGIM 2024 Kongressbericht

Die Kombination aus Medikamenten und Psychotherapie gilt als effektivster Ansatz bei Depressionen. Das ist bei betagten Menschen nicht anders, trotz Besonderheiten.

Auf diese Krankheiten bei Geflüchteten sollten Sie vorbereitet sein

22.04.2024 DGIM 2024 Nachrichten

Um Menschen nach der Flucht aus einem Krisengebiet bestmöglich medizinisch betreuen zu können, ist es gut zu wissen, welche Erkrankungen im jeweiligen Herkunftsland häufig sind. Dabei hilft eine Internetseite der CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Update Psychiatrie

Bestellen Sie unseren Fach-Newsletter und bleiben Sie gut informiert.

Newsletter bestellen

Springer Medizin

Abstract

Bitte loggen Sie sich ein, um Zugang zu diesem Inhalt zu erhalten

Weitere Artikel der Ausgabe 2/2008

Comorbid Anxiety in Bipolar Disorder Alters Treatment and Prognosis

Both Atomoxetine and Stimulants Improve Quality of Life in an ADHD Population Treated in a Community Clinic

Reducing Inpatient Aggression: Does Paying Attention Pay Off?

The Use of Data to Assist in the Design of a New Service System for Homeless Veterans in New York City