“Bárbara-cena”: From penal imputability to subjective accountability of the psychotic criminal

Abstract

This paper intends to readdress the question of the universalization of the psychotic offender’s criminal incapacity intended by article 26 of the Brazilian Penal Code and by Forensic Psychiatry, in light of the psychoanalytic experience, in a prison in Minas Gerais state. The case of the young murderer college student J.C. illustrates the importance of the psychoanalytic clinical method in the process of subjective accountability of the psychotic offender.