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Personal Injury and Damage Ascertainment under Civil Law pp 559–582Cite as

A Novel Methodology for the Objective Ascertainment of Psychic and Existential Damage

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Abstract

The process of ascertaining impairments and/or disabilities which pertain to the “personal sphere” of the individual, such as pain and suffering, loss of amenity, and/or psychological-existential damage, poses particular difficulties in relation to the obtainment of scientific evidence. The “immateriality” and the subjective connotation of the “personal sphere” are, in themselves, critical issues.

This chapter presents a novel methodology for the objective ascertainment of psychic and existential damage under civil-tort law, already illustrated by the “IALM Medico-Legal Guidelines” (IALM Working Group on Personal Injury and Damage) [1]. This chapter represents a slightly modified version of an article published in the International Journal of Legal Medicine.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Simulation differs from conversion disorder and other somatoform disorders for the intentional production of symptoms.

  2. 2.

    It is possible that a patient suffering from dissociative disorder or dissociative state attributable to another neuropsychiatric disease “produces,” on clinical observation, psychological symptoms (e.g., disorientation, memory loss, lack of reasoning and understanding, disorders of ideation, pseudodementia) that are not based on an actual decrease in cognitive and/or another objectivizable organic dysfunction.

  3. 3.

    Simulation differs from factitious disorder in that the motivation as to the production of the symptom is constituted by an external stimulus, whereas in factitious disorder external incentives are absent.

  4. 4.

    Intentional production of symptoms and physical complaints aimed at achieving attention and specialized healthcare.

  5. 5.

    Similar to the preceding, it is distinguished by the characteristic that the perpetrator induces disorders in another person.

  6. 6.

    Psychogenic pseudodementia or hysterical twilight state, typically observed in prisons. It was initially recognized in prisoners awaiting execution, with marked decrease of higher cognitive functions (absurd and evasive language, serious amnesia, dissolution of each semantic competence, inability to perform logical-deductive reasoning, also basic), as against apparently preserved consciousness, understanding, and orientation.

  7. 7.

    Cutoff validated by experimental studies amounting to 9/15, below which malingering is identified

  8. 8.

    Cutoff validated by experimental studies amounting to 6/15, below which malingering is identified

  9. 9.

    Cutoff validated by experimental studies amounting to 180 s for counting the ungrouped dots and 130 s for the grouped dots

  10. 10.

    Cutoff > 14 for the identification of malingering

  11. 11.

    Cutoff <93 % for the identification of malingering

  12. 12.

    Cutoff ≤75 for the identification of malingering

  13. 13.

    Cutoff ≤44 for the identification of malingering

  14. 14.

    Cutoff <50 % for the identification of malingering

  15. 15.

    Cutoff ≤50 % for the identification of malingering

  16. 16.

    Cutoff < 8.50 for the identification of malingering

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Legal and Occupational Medicine, Toxicology and Public Health, University-Hospital of Padova, Via Falloppio 50, 35128, Padova, Italy

    Santo Davide Ferrara, Viviana Ananian, Claudio Terranova & Guido Viel

  2. Service de Médecine Légale, University of Montpellier, Hôpital Lapeyronie, 191 Av. du Doyen Gaston Giraud, 34295, Montpellier Cedex, France

    Eric Baccino

  3. Department of Clinical, Surgical, and Molecular Pathology, Unit of Legal Medicine, University of Pisa, Via Roma 55, 56126, Pisa, Italy

    Ranieri Domenici

  4. Department of Legal Medicine, Forensic Toxicology and Anthropology, University of Granada, Avda. de Madrid 11, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Claudio Hernàndez-Cueto

  5. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, 2499, 3161, Caulfield, VIC, Australia

    George Mendelson

  6. Department of Health Sciences, Forensic Sciences Section, Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, 50134, Florence, Italy

    Gian Aristide Norelli

  7. Division of Disability Medicine, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Marshall University, 1600 Medical Center Drive, Huntington, 25701, WV, USA

    Mohammed Ranavaya

  8. Department of Forensic Medicine, Ethics and Medical Law, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Pólo das Ciências da Saúde—Unidade Central, Azinhaga, de Santa Comba, Celas, 3000-354, Coimbra, Portugal

    Duarte Nuno Vieira

  9. Department of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Physical Anthropology, University of Granada, Avda Madrid 11, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Enrique Villanueva

  10. Department of Private Law and Critique of Law, University of Padova, Via 8 Febbraio 1848 n.2, 35122, Padova, Italy

    Anna Chiara Zanuzzi

  11. Department of Health and Biomedical Sciences, Section of Legal Medicine, University of Milan, Via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Riccardo Zoia

  12. Department of Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padova, Italy

    Giuseppe Sartori

Authors
  1. Santo Davide Ferrara
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  2. Viviana Ananian
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  3. Eric Baccino
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  14. Riccardo Zoia
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  15. Giuseppe Sartori
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Santo Davide Ferrara .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Legal and Occupational Medicine, Toxicology and Public Health, University-Hospital of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Santo Davide Ferrara

  2. Department of Legal and Occupational Medicine, Toxicology and Public Health, University-Hospital of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Rafael Boscolo-Berto

  3. Department of Legal and Occupational Medicine, Toxicology and Public Health, University-Hospital of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Guido Viel

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Ferrara, S.D. et al. (2016). A Novel Methodology for the Objective Ascertainment of Psychic and Existential Damage. In: Ferrara, S., Boscolo-Berto, R., Viel, G. (eds) Personal Injury and Damage Ascertainment under Civil Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29812-2_30

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