Stalking--relevance for clinical practice and jurisdiction

• Published in: Psychiatrische Praxis Vol. 30; no. 3; p. 152
• Main Authors: Kamleiter, Martin, Laakmann, Gregor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: German
• Published: Germany 01-04-2003
• Subjects: Adult; Antipsychotic Agents - therapeutic use; Combined Modality Therapy; Commitment of Mentally Ill - legislation & jurisprudence; Delusions - diagnosis; Delusions - psychology; Delusions - therapy; Female; Humans; Love; Male; Middle Aged; Patient Readmission - legislation & jurisprudence; Personality Disorders - diagnosis; Personality Disorders - psychology; Personality Disorders - therapy; Sexual Harassment - legislation & jurisprudence; Sexual Harassment - psychology
• ISSN: 0303-4259
• DOI: 10.1055/s-2003-38609

The term "stalking" literally means "to follow, to pursue". In a psychiatric context stalking describes a syndrome of pathological behavior, which is characterized by notorious following menacing, harassing and contacting a victim against its declared will. The patterns of behavior summarized as "stalking" have been the matter of interest for psychiatric research for a long time, e. g. as annoyance in the context of erotomania. This syndrome of stalking behavior can be associated with a variety of psychiatric disorders. The relevance of stalking as a syndromatic entity is illustrated by two cases of psychiatric inpatients who showed stalking behavior in their history. The first case describes a female patient following and harassing a man, who had turned down her attempts of starting a love affair. The second case describes a male patient, who had started to follow, harass and attack his partner after she had left him. These case reports are discussed in context with the literature existing on stalking behavior. A further objective of this paper is to discuss the new German harassment protection act in context with its implications on stalking behavior and the meaning of such behavior for psychiatric and forensic practice.