This paper clarifies the conceptual space of discussion of legal insanity by considering the virtues of the ‘medical model’ model that has been used in Norway for almost a century. The medical model identifies insanity exclusively with mental disorder, and especially with psychosis, without any requirement that the disorder causally influenced the commission of the crime. We explore the medical model from a transdisciplinary perspective and show how it can be utilised to systematise and reconsider the central philosophical, legal and medical premises involved in the insanity debate. A key concern is how recent transdiagnostic and dimensional approaches to psychosis can illuminate the law’s understanding of insanity and its relation to mental disorder. The authors eventually raise the question whether the medical model can be reconstructed into a unified insanity model that is valid across the related disciplinary perspectives, and that moves beyond current insanity models.
Linda Gr¨oning a,b,*, Unn K. Haukvik c,d, Stephen J. Morse e, Susanna Radovic f
a Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, University of Bergen, PB 7806 5020, Bergen, Norway b Regional Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, Haukeland University Hospital of Bergen, PB 1400, 5021, Bergen, Norway c Department of Mental Health and Addiction, Institute for Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo & Centre for University of Bergen, Norway d Regional Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, Oslo University Hospital, PB 4956, Nydalen, 0424 Oslo, Norway e Law School & Psychiatry Department, University of Pennsylvania, 3501 Sansom St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-6204, USA f Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science & Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health, University of Gothenburg, PB 100, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden