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Ritual homicide during dissociative trance disorder
Stefano Ferracuti1, Maria Civita DeMarco
1Dipartimento di Scienze Psichiatriche e Medicina Psicologica, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy. stefano.ferracuti@uniroma1.it
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
|February 19, 2004
Abstract:
A case report is described of a man who developed a single period of recurrent episodes of dissociative trance disorder (DTD) during a family stress. The cultural environment was permeated by thoughts and beliefs in magic. During one trance state, the man performed an exorcism on the 6-month-old baby of his brother-in-law, and the baby died from cerebral hemorrhage. In the 5-year follow-up, no other episodes of DTD developed, and the man is serving an 18-year sentence.