Female Arsonists

Abstract
Arson has long been a subject of interest to the psychiatrist. In the early nineteenth century, continental psychiatrists in particular maintained that pyromania was a form of insanity, and laws were enacted in the German States and in France to protect such persons from the death penalty. The underlying sexual roots of arson have been stressed (e.g. Stekel, 1924), and although Reiss (1909) suggested that it might represent any form of displaced emotional reaction to tension, and McKerracher and Dacre (1966) that it might represent displaced aggression, the view of a sexual basis for arson is still commonly held.

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