Updated July 23, 2021 629 Author: Dmitry Petrov
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. There is a state of the human psyche called affect. It does not occur often and not for everyone, but once it does occur, the person ceases to be himself.
Most often, this word is used as part of the phrase “state of passion,” which is talked about when trying to explain the state of a person who has committed illegal actions.
But what kind of affect is this? And why its presence can exempt you from liability even for very serious crimes.
Affect is...
Translated from Latin, the word “affect” means emotional excitement or passion that arises as a reaction to a traumatic, threatening event, where a person does not see the desired solution.
To put it simply, affect is a short-term clouding of consciousness , accompanied by strong emotional experiences, organic changes and chaotic motor activity.
One in this state can be compared to an animal rushing about in a cage. A person loses control over himself - volitional and mental functions, and therefore subsequently does not remember what happened to him.
“The illegal actions were committed in a state of passion, so the court acquitted the accused” - this phrase is often said in movies.
In the criminal law of many countries, a state of passion is a “good reason” to drop charges even for murder, since the person at the time of the crime does not seem to belong to himself.
Unconscious actions under the influence of strong emotions (usually negative) cannot be regarded as intentional, therefore there is practically no demand from the individual.
It is important to note that emotions in the usual sense (joy, fear, sadness) and affect are different things. The first are perceived by the individual as “I”, their manifestation. The second is subjectively perceived as “something that does not depend on me.”
States of passion and insanity in criminal law. Reference
In criminal law, physiological affect is associated with a sudden strong but short-term emotional state (mental excitement), in which disorganization of mental activity occurs. A person does not completely lose understanding of the situation and the actions he performs, but he practically does not control them.
The most important signs of physiological affect are: - suddenness of occurrence (affect occurs suddenly against the will of a person and, as it were, takes possession of him);
— explosive dynamics (in a short period of time the state reaches its highest limit);
- short duration (affect is measured in seconds and minutes; the statement that affect lasts 15–20 minutes or more is an exaggeration: for such a long time a person can be in a different mental state, but not in an affective one);
— intensity and tension of the course (in a state of passion, a person acquires additional physical strength and capabilities);
- a disorganizing effect on mental activity (in a state of passion, a narrowing of consciousness is observed to the limits of a psychotraumatic situation, flexibility of thinking is lost, the quality of thought processes decreases, self-control is sharply lost, purposefulness and understanding of the appropriateness of actions are disrupted);
- increased motor activity, a sharp increase in behavioral acts (a person makes erratic movements, inflicts many wounds on the victim), etc.;
- vegetative changes (characterized by changes in skin color (redness, pallor) and voice modulation, respiratory arrhythmia, drying out of the oral mucosa, intensification of cardiac activity, etc.).
The consequences of affect can be partial amnesia and asthenic syndrome (the suspect (accused) is sometimes unable to remember individual details of the incident, for example, cannot say where he took the crime weapon, where and how he struck the victim, etc.).
Asthenic syndrome is characterized by decline: physical and neuropsychic weakness, increased fatigue and exhaustion, decreased sensitivity threshold, extreme mood instability, sleep disturbance.
A decrease in the adequacy of human behavior may also be observed. The latter is especially acute in attempts to hide a crime (for example, by simulating suicide).
A person who commits a crime in a state of physiological affect (or some other emotional states) is subject to criminal liability.
Pathological affect is a short-term painful mental disorder, accompanied by deep clouding of consciousness, impulsive acts, partial or complete loss of memory (amnesia). It is characterized by a concentration of consciousness on traumatic experiences followed by an affective discharge. A person’s actions are accompanied by incoherent speech and excessive gesticulation. The post-affective state manifests itself in general weakness, drowsiness or deep sleep.
Pathological affect is an exceptional condition and is quite rare in forensic practice. To establish the affect at the time of committing illegal actions by persons suffering from mental illness (schizophrenia, epilepsy, manic-depressive psychosis, etc.), comprehensive forensic psychological and psychiatric examinations are carried out.
Persons who have committed crimes in a state of pathological affect are recognized as insane and are not responsible for their actions (inaction).
Affect acquires criminal legal significance if the state of sudden strong emotional disturbance (affect) is caused by violence, bullying, grave insult on the part of the victim or other illegal or immoral actions (inaction) of the victim, as well as a long-term psychotraumatic situation that arose in connection with with systematic illegal or immoral behavior of the victim.
The presence of a person in a state of passion when committing crimes is a circumstance that significantly reduces responsibility for the committed act.
The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation contains two articles providing for liability for committing a crime in a state of passion: committing murder (Article 107) and causing grievous or moderate harm to health (Article 113). The crime provided for in Art. 113 of the Criminal Code is a crime of minor gravity, while even the intentional infliction of moderate harm to health without qualifying criteria (Article 112 Part 1) is a crime of moderate gravity; murder committed in a state of passion (Article 107) is a crime of moderate gravity, and intentional murder without qualifying features (Article 105 part 1) is a serious crime.
The presence of a person in a state of passion is a circumstance subject to proof (Article 73 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).
Insanity in criminal law is the inability of a person to realize the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction), or to control them due to a chronic mental disorder, temporary mental disorder, dementia or other painful mental state (Article 21 of the Criminal Code).
The basis for declaring a person insane is the presence of one of the signs of legal and medical criteria.
The legal criterion is the lack of ability of a person to account for and control his actions. The legal criterion includes intellectual and volitional characteristics. Intellectual - a sign indicating a disorder of consciousness, expressed in the inability of a person to realize the actual nature and social danger of an action (inaction). Volitional is a sign indicating a disorder of the will, expressed in the inability of a person to direct his actions.
The medical criterion indicates various forms of mental disorders, expressed in disruption of the activity of the human brain. Contains four signs: chronic mental disorder, temporary mental disorder, dementia, and other painful mental state.
Chronic mental disorders are chronic mental illness, i.e. long-term mental disorder (schizophrenia, epilepsy, progressive paralysis, paranoia, etc.).
Temporary mental disorder is a mental illness that lasts for a certain period of time (relatively quickly) and ends with recovery (pathological intoxication (delirium tremens), pathological affect, reactive states, i.e. mental disorders caused by severe mental shocks and experiences).
Dementia is various types of decline or complete decline in mental activity associated with damage to a person’s intellectual abilities.
Another painful mental state is painful phenomena that are not mental illnesses, but, nevertheless, are also accompanied by mental disorders (can be observed with brain injuries, brain tumors, typhoid fever and other diseases).
Establishing the presence or absence of signs of medical and legal criteria for insanity is carried out by the court with the help of specialists in the field of psychiatry.
According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a person who was in a state of insanity at the time of committing a socially dangerous act is not subject to criminal liability (Article 21).
A person who has committed a socially dangerous act provided for by criminal law in a state of insanity may be imposed compulsory medical measures by the court:
— outpatient compulsory observation and treatment by a psychiatrist;
— compulsory treatment in a general psychiatric hospital;
— compulsory treatment in a specialized psychiatric hospital;
- compulsory treatment in a specialized psychiatric hospital with intensive supervision.
The material was prepared by the editors of rian.ru based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Signs of a state of passion
The main signs of affect are the following things:
- chaotic motor activity, grimaces;
- disorganized behavior;
- suddenness of the phenomenon;
- exhaustion at the mental and physical level;
- explosive, violent emotions;
- unawareness and lack of control;
- short-term course.
At such a moment, a person seems to be detached from reality - disoriented in time and space. Everything that happens is described with the words “it wasn’t with me, like in a dream, it wasn’t me, some force was guiding me,” accompanied by a feeling of hopelessness.
Perception turns out to be sharply narrowed and distorted, some mental functions are blocked: events that occur during the affect, as well as those that preceded its appearance, fly out of memory. Sometimes memories of what happened are present, but partially, in the form of fragments.
On the physiological side, various autonomic reactions occur: the pulse quickens, blood pressure rises, a large dose of adrenaline is released, blood vessels spasm, etc.
Affects in psychology and phases of their occurrence
In psychology, affect is intense experiences that lead the psyche into strong arousal, occurring at a time when a person cannot satisfy a particularly important need. Such a need can be both biological and social in nature.
For example, the instinct of self-preservation is a natural mechanism (biological). It “works” the same way for all people: if you are in mortal danger (a person is moving towards you with a knife), then for the sake of its survival, your body - body and psyche - will use all kinds of resources.
In such a situation, a person discovers abilities - he runs faster than the coolest sprinter or fights with an offender like the best martial arts master in the world. After the decline of affect, these abilities disappear, as if they never existed.
The course of affect is divided into 3 stages:
- Pre-affective – consciousness is still intact, but there are disturbances in the perception of one’s experiences and what is happening. Gradually emotions come to the fore, logic is lost.
- Affective explosion - accompanied by all the phenomena described in the chapter “Signs”. Typically, the peak of the experience is accompanied by one of two unconscious reactions: fight or flight.
- Post-affect – a person feels “squeezed like a lemon” and wants to sleep. There are no emotions or physical strength.
In a state of passion, a person loses control, which means that all his “musts,” “musts,” and “musts” dissolve, revealing his natural essence.
Social norms and rules fade into the background, and the individual does what he would never allow himself to do in a normal state of mind: he can hit, insult and even kill if circumstances so require.
EFFECTIVENESS
Psychopathology requires a sharp distinction between cognitive processes and mental impulses. The word “feeling” denotes two types of processes and therefore easily leads to misunderstandings, since many sensations are called feelings. In the same way, Nalovsky’s “intellectual feelings” are processes of cognition. Hunger, thirst, pain, etc. are mixed processes; they contain a sensation and a feeling related to it, or, in other words, a feeling caused by it. Other physical sensations, such as the sensation of tension in our muscles, also have a different relationship to the feelings, since they not only have a secondary influence on the feelings, but are also controlled by them and therefore form a direct part of the symptomatology of affects. We call the group of functions limited in this way affectivity.
Only affectivity in the strict sense has, both in a healthy and in a sick state, a well-known influence on physical functions (tears, cardiac activity, breathing, etc.), as well as on inhibition and the identification of thoughts. In general, it is the driving element of our actions. It extends the reaction to an isolated impression of a sensory organ to the entire organism and the entire psyche, eliminates opposing tendencies and thus gives the reaction a certain volume and strength. It determines the unity of action of all our nervous and mental organs. In addition, it strengthens the reaction also in a temporal sense, giving a certain direction of action a duration that goes beyond the limits of the primary excitation. It is the cause of many splits and transformations of our Self, some forms of delirium, etc.
Affectivity exhibits a certain independence in relation to intellectual processes, since affects can be transferred from one process to another and since different people react so differently to the same intellectual processes, it is impossible to establish any norm for affectivity. In the same way, the development of affectivity occurs in a child completely independently of the development of intelligence.
Therefore, there must be different types depending on the nature of the reaction to processes that have a strong emotional overtones. This characteristic of the individual determines whether he will become hysterical or paranoid, or whether he will fall ill with another form that is currently considered functional.
Attention is one of the manifestations of affectivity. It guides associations to the same extent as feelings, and does not manifest itself outside of affects. In pathology, it undergoes the same changes as feelings.
In a child, feelings can, as is easy to notice, so replace reason that the result of affective manifestation and inhibition of associations is equivalent to the result of complex logical operations. This is the so-called instinctive response.
In pathology, affective abnormalities come to the fore in the entire picture of the disease. In organic psychoses, affectivity is by no means dulled, as has often been asserted. On the contrary, in organics the affective reaction is facilitated (compared to normal people). Dullness is only apparent, secondary, it reflects the dulling of the intellect. If the patient can no longer create a complex idea or fully understand it, then, naturally, an appropriate emotional reaction cannot be expected from him.
The same applies to alcoholics; In epileptics, affectivity is also preserved, but instead of the lability that occurs with organic diseases, it shows greater stability.
In oligophrenics we encounter all sorts of variations in affectivity, as in healthy people, but only within even wider limits. In dementia praecox, the affects are suppressed in a certain way, however, their manifestations can still be proven.
The holothymic influence of the general mood setting should be distinguished (especially in pathology) from the catathymic influence of the affective coloring of individual ideas. For example, delusional ideas of manic patients and melancholic people have a holothymic origin; Delusions of persecution and most neurotic symptoms are catathic. Every healthy and sick person can, depending on the situation, exhibit a holothymic or catathymic reaction, and the tendency to one or another type of reaction can vary in its strength as desired, completely independently of one another. Normally, both of these predispositions are moderately expressed; in a schizoid or cycloid one of them seems especially strong, in a schizopath or cyclopath one of these predispositions is intensified to the point of a painful state, in a schizophrenic or manic-depressive patient one of them is increased to a psychotic state. According to Kretschmer, these mental types correspond to certain physical constitutions.
Affectivity is one of the aspects of our drives and instincts (ergies). Experiences corresponding to drives are associated with pleasure (from an internal point of view); experiences that are in conflict with drives indicate subjective displeasure.
Mechanisms that are important for depth psychology, such as repression, displacement, transference, etc., appear to be self-explanatory affective mechanisms; however, from our point of view, some of Freud's minor ideas, such as censorship, should be interpreted somewhat differently.
SUGGESTION
Suggestibility is one of the aspects of effectiveness. Suggestion and effectiveness have the same effect on the psyche and the body. As far as we can tell, they also act in the same ways.
With primitive relationships (in animals), almost only affects can be suggestible. Suggestibility, like effectiveness, manifests itself in children earlier than intelligence.
Suggestion has the same effect on a group of individuals as affect does on an individual: it determines the unity and duration of the action; it creates collective affect. The greater the emotional value of an idea, the more contagious it is. The suggestibility of a group of individuals is, for many reasons, greater than the suggestibility of an individual.
Everything that is described as an action of autosuggestion can just as correctly be described as an action of effectiveness.
The ratio of suggestibility and effectiveness to attention is the same (as well as to pain).
PARANOIA
So far, it has not been possible to establish the origin of paranoia from a pathological affective attitude. In particular, the mistrust that should underlie paranoia is not an affect. Moreover, it does not occur in all forms of paranoia.
With paranoia, no general or primary mood disorder has been established. Transient or long-term signs of manic or depressive mood disorders occur in paranoia (as in healthy people), but they are not the basis of the disease, but only moments that give the picture a certain color. The clearly visible painful affects are secondary consequences of delusional ideas.
Likewise, in paranoia there is no general disturbance of perception or apperception or a general change in memory images. The presence of hypertrophy I is by no means established in paranoia as a permanent symptom.
What is designated as hypertrophy of the ego and as an egocentric character is partly a consequence of the fact that with paranoia, an affectively colored complex of ideas always comes to the fore in the psyche. Therefore, among paranoids, as well as among normal people, who, due to some affective reasons or due to a constellation, display an orientation towards certain ideas - everyday, as well as less ordinary events, enter into an associative connection primarily with this complex. Since much that has nothing to do with the patient is brought into a false connection with the complex, delusions of relation arise from this. Since all affectively colored complexes are closely related to the ego, the latter is brought to the fore; the definition of “hypertrophied self” is by no means suitable for this process. In addition, every paranoid person has aspirations or desires that go beyond his capabilities; in the same way, this cannot yet be designated as hypertrophy of the ego.
A more thorough study of the emergence of delusional ideas shows that under the influence of chronic affect (affect associated with a given complex), delusions arise using the same mechanism as in a healthy person in an excited state. The pathological point is that these delusions cannot be corrected and that they draw new experiences into their circle.
The prerequisite for such an attitude is affects that have a large switching force and very significant stability in the sense of resistance to logical functions. Thus, associations corresponding to affects become excessively strong and are revealed over time, while associations contrary to affects are inhibited, and it comes to logical weakness; but first of all, thanks to this, an incorrect application to one’s own personality of everything that happens in the surrounding environment arises; illusions of memory arise, which fulfill the desires of euphorically minded patients in delirium of grandeur; those same patients who are in a normal or depressed mood, who somehow feel their insufficiency to achieve the goals they have set for themselves, compensate for these illusions of memory (after affects displace from consciousness the unbearable idea of their own weakness) by what they endure in the delirium of persecution the cause of failure to the outside world; in the fight against the latter, the patient should not lower his self-esteem, but, on the contrary, as a fighter for his right, he can increase it. The cancerous spread and incurability of delusions are determined by the ongoing conflict between desire and reality.
That with delusions of persecution different relationships must take place than with delusions of grandeur is clear from the fact that its occurrence does not occur directly.
The predisposition to create paranoid delusions is in some connection with schizoid or schizophrenia.
Some, infrequent forms of delusional constructs in mild and arrested cases of schizophrenia cannot yet be clinically distinguished from paranoia. Otherwise, we have reason to assume that in schizophrenia there is always an anatomical process that does not occur in paranoia.
Forms of so-called paranoia (such as paraphrenia), which do not correspond to Kraepelin’s concept of paranoia (including the litigious form), cannot currently be either unconditionally attributed to the schizophrenic circle, nor completely separated from it.
