Wild Beasts and Idle Humours : The Insanity Defense from Antiquity to the Present

How does the law regard and define mental incompetence?

To what extent has the law relied on extra-legal authorities - be they religious or scientific - to frame its own categories of mental incompetence?

This text takes readers on a journey through the changing historical landscape of human nature and offers a look at the legal conceptions of insanity from the pre-classical Greek world to the present.

It should be of use to those interested in the evolution of thinking about legal insanity.