ABSTRACT
The introduction of diminished responsibility into English Law was a half-hearted response by the Government of 1956 to the growing pressure for abolition of the death penalty. The perfunctory discussion of the defence’s terms and the haste with which the bill was rushed through were later to lead to uncertainty as to the precise scope of the defence. At first it was unclear whether the Crown could accept the plea of diminished responsibility where the psychiatric evidence was unanimous or whether the issue had to be left to the jury. By the 1950’s the medical categories of moral and volitional insanity had gone out of vogue and been replaced by the “psychopathic personality”. Attempts to have premenstrual tension (P.M.T.) recognised as a complete defence to criminal charges have been unsuccessful in both England and the United States. Allowing medical testimony on P.M.T. has paved the way for the reception of medical evidence on bodily malfunctions which affect normal mental processes.
