Zach Joyce
Psy 201
11/28/12
We’ve all heard the analogy “easy as taking candy from a baby” but what happens when that candy turns into something bigger, like clothes, electronics or even a car? According to http://www.minddisorders.com “Kleptomania is a complex disorder characterized by repeated, failed attempts to stop stealing. It is often seen in patients who are chemically dependent or who have a coexisting mood, anxiety, or eating disorder. Other coexisting mental disorders may include major depression, panic attacks, social phobia, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, substance abuse, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. People with this disorder have an overwhelming urge to steal and get a thrill from doing so. The recurrent act of stealing may be restricted to specific objects and settings, but the affected person may or may not describe these special preferences. People with this disorder usually exhibit guilt after the theft.
Detection of kleptomania, even by significant others, is difficult and the disorder often proceeds undetected. There may be preferred objects and environments where theft occurs. One theory proposes that the thrill of stealing helps to alleviate symptoms in persons who are clinically depressed.” People with Kleptomania feel the need to steal all the time. Some of them get a thrill out of it and some just do it for the plain fact that they don’t want to pay for something. Others feel the need to steal to cope with a depression or possibly even another disorder they may have. According to http://minddisorders.com “The cause of kleptomania is unknown, although it may have a genetic component and may be transmitted among first-degree relatives. There also seems to be a strong propensity for kleptomania to coexist with obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia nervosa, and clinical depression.” Basically kleptomania is not always genetic but in some cases it can be. Most people with kleptomania have obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia nervosa and or clinical depression.
There is a list of symptoms that have been recorded on http://minddisorders.com. “The handbook used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental disorders is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Published by the American Psychiatric Association, the DSM contains diagnostic criteria and research findings for mental disorders. It is the primary reference for mental health professionals in the United States. The 2000 edition of this manual (fourth edition, text revision), known as the DSM-IV-TR, lists five diagnostic criteria for kleptomania: * • Repeated theft of objects that are unnecessary for either personal use or monetary