THE LIMITS OF SANITY

by Larry Still ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 1973

A Canadian newspaper correspondent reviews a cold-blooded case of multiple murder in which a logger, depressive and violent by nature who drank to stir up his sexual courage, went out one night and killed eight people in the vicinity including the family (mother and two children) of his wife's aunt. When finally picked up by an undermanned RCMP patrol, he said ""Must have been the LSD"" (later he denied having used it) or just more simply ""It ain't pleasant to think about."" Still reviews the case in an objective if somewhat atonal fashion largely to reexamine the McNaghten Rule, still part of the court code in Canada (though rescinded in the home country), and to show how difficult it is to apply both psychiatrically and legally and how impossible it may well be to distinguish ""temporary insanity"" from a ""disease of the mind."" Thus The Limits of Sanity comes down essentially to a consideration of the limitations of McNaghten since the case itself, terrible and tragic as it was, has little residual interest.

Pub Date: March 3, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION