Kleptomania has existed for a very long time, and even the most famous personalities suffered from this defect. So, King Henry IV, being at receptions and just visiting, deftly hid some gizmos in his pockets and sleeves. And returning them to their owners, he enjoyed the effect produced. He did his petty thefts solely for pleasure. This motive also guides the majority of current kleptomaniacs, although some steal for completely different reasons. Therefore, the question of what kleptomania is can be difficult to answer. Let's try to figure it out.
Kleptomania definition
In Greek, a thief is κλέφτης (kleftis). The meaning of the word "mania" is a mental disorder, which consists in the concentration of all the impulses of consciousness to a certain idea or action. Therefore, the question of what kleptomania is can be answered: it is a mental disorder, consisting in the inducement to steal. What causes mental or mental disorders? The main reason is the inability to accept the prevailing living conditions and the inability to cope with dailymajor and minor problems, as well as an internal conflict of personality, when it seems to a person that he is missing something from life, he is not reaching for something. In such situations, disturbed mental balance causes a person to have a violation in the field of behavior, thinking, and so on. Unfortunately, every fourth inhabitant of the Earth has mental disorders. Every second woman and every tenth man has kleptomania.
Little Thieves
It's no secret how common kleptomania is in children. How often do our kids bring home other people's toys and things, and change is taken from our pockets or just from the table!
Some parents, having convicted the heir of their deed, literally knock out the beginnings of this vice from him. Other fathers and mothers pretend that nothing happened, believing that the child himself will forget about his misdeed. Both of them are wrong. Having found a foreign object in the house, it is impossible to beat the child, just as it is impossible not to pay attention to it. You definitely need to talk with the baby, find out why he took someone else's, and explain the inadmissibility of this action. In cases of persistent petty theft, it is advisable to contact a child psychologist. And for themselves, parents should figure out what their child lacks and try to fill the gap. If measures are not taken in time, children's kleptomania will gain a foothold in the mind and develop into an adult. And there is already a stone's throw to crime.
Why do kids steal
The child was barely born and grew up a little - but already a personalitywith all its inherent qualities. This means that the little man is able to worry, be jealous, offended, envy, even take revenge. Although his life has just begun, he is already sensitive to any attitude towards him and perfectly notices indifference to his person, dislike, preference for other people.
Kleptomania can develop on the basis of all this. The reasons why babies take someone else's things are very different. Here are just a few:
- desire to attract attention;
- jealousy (when children take the things of people with whom mom or dad spends too much time);
- envy (mainly observed in children from poor families);
- not knowing that stealing is bad;
- desire to be a hero in front of other children;
- just like that, because the thing (money) caught my eye;
- the desire to imitate someone (for example, movie heroes);
- strong emotional and psychological stress;
- latent or overt mental illness.
How to cure children from stealing
The psyche in childhood is only being formed and is almost always amenable to correction. If you correctly understand the state of mind of a little man, you can remove the reasons why his hands reach for other people's things. If the child does not have enough attention, you need to try to find more time for him. If this is a desire to possess what he does not have, you can buy the desired thing for the child or replace itanother, more suitable for the financial capabilities of the parents, or to shift the child's interest from this thing to something else, no less interesting. Children's theft is easily suppressed if the child did not know that it was bad. In this case, a simple calm conversation is enough. It is more difficult to eradicate kleptomania in children caused by mental disorders. In front of one girl, her father was shot dead. She felt a great desire to steal something whenever she remembered this picture. Another boy took someone else's when a vision of an accident he experienced with his parents arose in his memory. In such and similar cases, only a specialist psychotherapist can help the child.
Kleptomania in adults
Stealing in children is relatively easy. It's a completely different matter with adults. Almost every one of them understands that taking someone else's is evil. And they take it anyway. Moreover, many kleptomaniacs absolutely do not need the little things they steal! For example, Britney Spears pulls lighters from gas stations and wigs from stores. Sellers see this, but are silent. Winona Ryder takes clothes out of boutiques. The famous Neil Cassidy "stole" cars. He had almost five hundred of them. In fact, with the assumption that there is such a disease - kleptomania, every little thief can declare his innocence to the representatives of the law and calmly continue his work. In Britain, it has been calculated that every year kleptomaniacs empty store shelves worth about $ 100 billion. This is such an innocent mental disorder. Ideally everyone caught red-handed by the guardslaw should be sent for special examination. But in reality this rarely happens.
Test for mental disorders
Many psychologists and psychotherapists around the world are developing tests to identify various forms of mental disorders in the ward. The most famous of these is the Szondi test, first published back in 1939.
It consists in the patient's choice of positive and negative (in his opinion) faces from the proposed photo gallery. Professor Szondi, in developing this test, was based on the hereditary tendency of each person to visual images of negativity. He studied large groups of people with mental disabilities for a long time and analyzed the medical histories of relatives of these people.
Besides the Sondi test, there are others. All of them are based on a group of questions of various categories. But in reality, with the help of tests, it is impossible to absolutely prove that the subject has this mental disorder - kleptomania. The treatment of caught and not convicted thieves mainly consists of psychological training. However, in America, a cure for this disease has been developed. The drug acts on special receptors in the brain and causes a feeling of relaxation, which neutralizes the desire to steal. True, it does not work on imaginary patients.
Why adults steal
Among adults who call themselves kleptomaniacs, there is a large group of those who steal out of necessity or for profit.
Those who are not in material we althneeds something to snitch for various reasons. The most characteristic of them:
- passion, love of risk;
- head and brain injuries;
- desire to have fun (which is why Jimmy Morrison once stole books);
- disorders of the nervous system (some people relieve stress by stealing);
- vengeance on the whole world for their troubles;
- feeling like a kind of fighter for justice. One we althy man pulled something from the supermarket every time, explaining this as compensation for too high prices (so it seemed to him) or for disgusting service. He always found a reason to punish the store employees and never thought it was kleptomania. Treatment of such mental disorders is carried out in a specialized clinic in Malibu. It costs about twenty thousand dollars.
Skin Vector Theory
Trying to explain what kleptomania is, the so-called skin vector theory associated with the system-vector psychology of Yuri Burlan. It is based on the assertion that our body is a part of the Universe, which is separated from the rest of the world and protected from external influences by the skin. She knows how to respond to any changes in the environment and is the coordinating principle for mankind. "Skin" people are always organizers and movers of progress by nature. At the same time, they are prudent economists, clearly defining the boundaries of their property and striving to fill it with material goods. Once upon a time, the skin vector helped both its owner and his entire family survive. Now he helps borrowcertain position in society. According to this theory, only a person with a skin vector can become a kleptomaniac.
How to help a real kleptomaniac
What is kleptomania for kleptomaniacs themselves? Some perceive it as a way to get the desired dose of adrenaline or as a fun adventure, others experience severe mental anguish. At the time of the theft, such people do not realize what they are doing. Understanding, and with it remorse and shame, come when the action is done. Most annoying is the fear that family, friends, colleagues will find out about the theft. Too impressionable such torment is driven to suicide. It turns out that kleptomania is not so harmless. How to treat this disease? In addition to the drug developed in America, antidepressants are widely used (Prozac, Luvox, Paxil). Good results are given by lithium preparations, anticonvulsants (Tomopax drugs), as well as the drug N altrexone. Together with the prescription of medications, the patient is given courses of psychotherapy.
