Criminally Relevant Affect and Self-Excitation Reaction

The relevance of the study is determined by the difficulties of differential diagnosis of criminally relevant affect and emotional reactions, in the genesis of which self-excitation plays an essential role. The purpose of the study is to identify the essential signs of self-excitation, to analyze the psychological mechanisms of its occurrence and development. The phenomenon of self-excitation in individuals with personality disorders has been analyzed in the context of cognitive theories of emotions, neuropsychic homeostasis, affective complexes, dominance and aggression. It is concluded that self-excitation can be defined as a multicomponent mental process that causes the intensification of emotional arousal through autostimulation, which can be carried out both internally and with the mutual influence of both internal processes and external influences. The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that in the differential diagnosis of affect and mental states associated with self-excitation, with a similar phenomenology of the criminal stage, it is necessary to take into account the different psychological mechanism of the emergence and development of an emotional reaction in a pre-criminal situation.