Social implications of the "dyscontrol syndrome" (neuropsychiatric correlates)

The recent literature contains numerous publications which have tried to stimulate a new and biologically oriented approach to the problem of violence. Experimental brain research indicates that biologically important predatory and aggression responses have multiple representations in the nervous system. However, knowledge gained so far concerning emotional brain function in violent persons with brain disease, or from experimental research, can only infrequently be applied to combat the violence-triggering mechanisms in the brains of the non-diseased. In the hope of determining the neurological basis of aggression, the present author studied the brains of forty-two patients whose clinical history indicated definite aggressive behaviour. Results are reported and discussed. It is also the aim of this paper to discuss the social implications of the surgical treatment of patients with a "dyscontrol syndrome" whose investigations do not reveal definite evidence of "hard" signs and symptoms of brain pathology.