Kleptomani (av grekiska klepto ’stjäla’ och mania ’raseri’, ’vansinne’) är en sjuklig benägenhet att stjäla saker när tillfälle uppstår.
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptomani
Diagnostic Criteria
1. repeated inability to defend against urges to steal things that are not essential for private use or for their economic value;
2. escalating sense of pressure immediately prior to performing the theft;
3. satisfaction, fulfillment or relief at the point of performing the theft;
4. the theft is not executed to convey antagonism or revenge, and is not in reaction to a delusion or a fantasy; and
5. the thieving is not better accounted for by behavior disorder, a manic episode, or antisocial personality disorder.
Major symptoms include a person's decreased resistance to steal objects unnecessarily, feeling entitled to own them at any cost. If a person gets away with stealing they may experience an adrenaline rush and for some successful thefts, dopamine is produced by the brain that can affect heart rate and blood pressure.
Kleptomania seems to be linked with other psychiatric disorders, especially mood swings, anxiety, eating disorders, and alcohol and substance abuse. The occurrence of stealing as a behavior in conjunction with eating disorders, particularly bulimia nervosa, is frequently taken as a sign of the harshness of the eating disorder.
Many psychoanalytic theorists suggest that kleptomania is a person's attempt "to obtain symbolic compensation for an actual or anticipated loss", and feel that the key to understanding its etiology lies in the symbolic meaning of the stolen items. Drive theory was used to propose that the act of stealing is a defense mechanism which serves as to modulate or keep undesirable feelings or emotions from being expressed. Others suggest that kleptomaniacs may just want the item that they steal and the feeling they get from the theft itself.
Thoughts such as "I’m smarter than others and can get away with it"; "they deserve it"; "I want to prove to myself that I can do it"; and "my family deserves to have better things" are strong cues to stealing behaviors.
American Journal of Psychiatry
Kleptomania: making sense of the nonsensical
Published Online:1 Apr 2006
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Kleptomania, or the irresistible impulse to steal unneeded objects, is a poorly understood disorder. The objectives of this paper are to critically review and integrate existing data and to make suggestions for further research.
FINDINGS: Kleptomania is more common than previously thought. The "typical" individual with kleptomania is a 35-year-old woman who began to steal when she was 20 years old. Her thefts bring both relief and guilt. She probably has not sought treatment on her own but suffers from a necessary, pervasive, repetitive, and self-destructive act. She may have a history of sexual dysfunction or sexual preoccupation and may be unhappily married to an emotionally unsupportive husband. She has been labile and dysphoric for many years and may have a personality disorder. She has probably had a tumultuous, stressful childhood and may dissociate.
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi.../ajp.148.8.986
