Attitude to a Socially Dangerous Act as a Structural Element of the Legal Consciousness of Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;">The work is aimed at the study of clinical and psychological factors that determine the legal consciousness of schizophrenia patients who have committed SDA. The materials of an empirical study obtained on a sample of schizophrenia patients undergoing compulsory treatment in a psychiatric hospital are presented. The study involved male 62 patients aged 18 to 35 years. Methods of pathopsychological research: Dembo—Rubinstein’s “Self-assessment”, MMPI, “The level of subjective control” by Rotter, “Ways of coping behavior” by Lazarus, pathopsychological functional tests — “Exclusion of objects”, “Pictogram”. The pathopsychological features reflecting significant differences in the patients’ legal consciousness have been established. New psychological information confirms the need to personalize psychological support during compulsory treatment. The key aspects of psychological work aimed at the prevention of socially dangerous behavior are the consideration of the attitude of patients to the disease and to the committed offense, as well as their individual psychological characteristics in order to reduce maladaptive and criminogenic behavioral stereotypes and the transformation of defects of legal consciousness.</p>