Literature
In Bram Stokers novel Dracula, the character Lucy Westenra is described as a sleepwalker. It is while sleepwalking that Count Dracula lures and attacks her. Sleepwalking as a legal defense
As sleepwalking behaviours occur without volition, sleepwalking can be used as a legal defense, as a form of legal automatism. An individual can be accused of non-insane or insane automatism. The first is used as a defense for temporary insanity or involuntary conduct, resulting in acquittal. The latter results in a "special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity." This verdict of insanity can result in a court order to attend a mental institution.In the 1963 case Bratty v A-G for Northern Ireland, Lord Morris stated, "Each set of facts must require a careful examination of its own circumstances, but if by way of taking an illustration it were considered possible for a person to walk in his sleep and to commit a violent crime while genuinely unconscious, then such a person would not be criminally liable for that act." While the veracity of the cases are disputed, there have been acts of homicide where the prime suspect may have committed the act while sleepwalking. Alternative explanations to homicidal or violent sleepwalking include malingering, drug-induced amnesia, and other disorders in which sleep-related violence may occur, such as REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, fugue states, and episodic wandering. Historical cases
1846, Albert Tirrell used sleepwalking as a defense against charges of murdering Maria Bickford, a prostitute living in a Boston brothel.
Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic approach
Several explanations of the mechanics of kleptomania have been presented. A contemporary social approach proposes that kleptomania is an outcome of consumerism and the large quantity of commodities in society. Psychodynamic theories depend on a variety of points of view in defining the disorder. Psychoanalysts define the condition as an indication of a defense mechanism deriving in the unconscious ego against anxiety, prohibited intuition or desires, unsettled struggle or forbidden sexual drives, dread of castration, sexual excitement, and sexual fulfillment and orgasm throughout the act of stealing. The psychoanalytic and psycho-dynamic approach to kleptomania granted the basis for prolonged psychoanalytic or psycho-dynamic psychotherapy as the core treatment method for a number of years. Like most psychiatric conditions, kleptomania was observed within the psycho-dynamic lens instead of being viewed as a bio-medical disorder. However, the prevalence of psychoanalytic approach contributed to the growth of other approaches, particularly in the biological domain. Behavioral and cognitive intervention
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) has primarily substituted the psychoanalytic and dynamic approach in the treatment of kleptomania. Numerous behavioural approaches have been recommended as helpful according to several cases stated in the literature. They include: hidden sensitisation by unpleasant images of nausea and vomiting, aversion therapy (for example, aversive holding of breath to achieve a slightly painful feeling every time a desire to steal or the act is imagined), and systematic desensitisation. In certain instances, the use of combining several methods such as hidden sensitisation along with exposure and response prevention were applied.