Psychoanalyzing kleptomania

Abstract

This article is a critical historical exploration of psychoanalytic theory about, and treatment of, kleptomania, an extreme form of consumer misbehavior characterized by impulse-control and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Kleptomania attracted the attention of two generations of key psychoanalytic theorists, who often developed brief suggestions made by Freud. In its heyday, from the 1920s through 1950s, psychoanalytic theory dominated all discussion of kleptomania, and psychoanalytic therapy was the preferred way to treat kleptomaniacs, whether referred by courts or their own troubled families. After 1960, as psychoanalysts showed less interest in kleptomania, and as psychoanalysis lost influence in psychiatric thought, especially in the United States, other approaches to kleptomania came to the fore, but psychoanalytic theory made an enduring contribution towards understanding kleptomania.