Habitual Violence and Self-Mutilation
GEORGE BACH-Y-RITA M.D.1
1 Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco, Calif. 94122
Thirty-seven percent of a group of 22 habitually violent patient/inmates were observed on admission to a special prison facility to have scars resulting from self-inflicted wounds. The author found that these men revealed considerable psychopathology beginning at an early age. He discusses the importance of identifying such patients and treating them separately from other violent individuals.
