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The insanity defense refers to that branch of the concept of insanity, which defines the extent to which those accused of crimes may be relieved of criminal responsibility by virtue of mental disease. The terms of such a defense are to be found in the instructions presented by the trial judge to the jury at the close of a case. These instructions can be drawn from any of several rules used in the determination of …

…streets in order to kill again? To draw a comparison between the two and argue that both defenses are necessary to the total order is naive and unfounded. In my opinion the insanity defense is impossible to maintain on the basis of rules such as the M'Naghten Rule, and the relationship between law and psychiatry must be reestablished on a more scientific level, based on the neurological work now going on in the brain sciences.