Automatism is a phenomenon where someone performs an action without conscious will, which can be caused by medication, psychiatric or neurological conditions. Treatment options include adjusting medication or psychotherapy. It has been used as a legal defense, but defendants must undergo screening to determine if they exhibited automatism at the time of the crime.
Automatism is a phenomenon in which someone makes a gesture or movement without conscious will. At a low level, it can take the form of a restlessness or tic that the person cannot control and may not be aware of. At a more advanced level, people may engage in acts such as holding conversations, driving cars, and so on, without actually checking their options. While automatism often appears in the newspapers in the “how strange” section, in reality it can be very serious and is anything but a curiosity for the people who experience it and the people around them.
There are a number of reasons why automatism occurs. In some cases, some medications can cause people to engage in activities as if they were awake when they aren’t actually conscious. Some psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia are also associated with automatism, as are neurological conditions such as seizures. In some types of seizures, people may perform acts that appear to be voluntary while actually experiencing a seizure.
Once automatism is recognized in a patient, there are a number of treatment options. Making family and friends aware that someone can do something without actually choosing to do so can ensure people are alert to obvious dangers. Sometimes, adjusting the medications will eliminate the problem, or working with the patient in psychotherapy will help the patient deal with the automatism so it happens less frequently.
Notoriously, automatism has been used as a legal defense on several occasions and in various legal cases. The legal argument for this is that while the perpetrator may have committed the act in question, the perpetrator had no will to commit the crime, literally acting like an automaton or robot. Therefore, it would not be reasonable to hold the accused liable for the crime, since the accused could not have controlled the actions that led to the commission of a crime.
When the automatism is used in a court of law, the defendant usually has to undergo a thorough screening. Obviously, many defendants would like to escape responsibility for a crime by claiming to have acted out of will, so it is crucial to determine whether or not the defendant could have exhibited automatism at the time of the crime. A history of such acts can strengthen the case, as can an assessment that the patient has a demonstrable condition associated with the phenomenon of automatism.
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