From paranoia querulans to vexatious litigants: a short study on madness between psychiatry and the law. Part 2

Abstract

The second part of this paper examines the history of querulous paranoia and vexatious litigation in the English-speaking countries from the nineteenth century to today. This study suggests that the lack of thorough research on querulous paranoia in these countries is due to a broad cultural, legal and medical context which has caused unreasonable complainants to be considered a purely legal, rather than a medical issue. To support this hypothesis, I analyse how legal steps have been taken throughout the English-speaking world since 1896 to keep the unreasonable complainants at bay, and I present reasons why medical measures have scarcely been adopted. However, I also submit evidence that this division of responsibilities between the judges and the psychiatrists has taken a new turn since the dawn of the twenty-first century.

Do delírio paranoico de reivindicação: crimes de gozo e em nome do ideal

“…No que se refere a Sérieux e Capgras, sabemos que Lacan, desde 1931, recusa-se a isolar um campo passional das psicoses, considerando que os delírios passionais são da ordem da paranoia. Não retomaremos esse debate fervoroso, que inspirou diversos estudos no campo da psicopatologia clínica (Maleval, 1989;Pereira, 2007;Lévy, 2014Lévy, , 2015Hamon, 2018). Entretanto, tentaremos estabelecer de maneira fina, segundo as contribuições lacanianas, a lógica específica do delírio de reivindicação, bem como a dos crimes de gozo e em nome de um ideal que podem dele derivar.…”