Ads from Google:


Google ad
End of ad
Google Adsense ad
End of ads.

Kleptomania - An Unhealthy Need to Steal and Pilfer

Abstract: A kleptomaniac is driven by anxiety, not by a need to earn money. Treatment involves finding other ways to handling the anxiety.

Web4Health logo
psychologist Independent medical expert answers on psychiatry and psychology

Kleptomania - An Unhealthy Need to Steal and Pilfer

Intelligent natural language question-answering in the area of psychology and psychiatry. Ask a simple question  Local help Info


Go the top of the page Top Forum iconDiscuss this Forum iconGet expert advice Printer Print
Question(s): 
Written by: Gunborg Palme, certified psychologist and certified psychotherapist, teacher and tutor in psychotherapy.
First version: 22 Jul 2008.
Latest revision: 22 Jul 2008.

My family has recently become aware that my brother's wife has been stealing - in shops, from the family, everywhere. She was treated at hospital for kleptomania. She also abuses pills and has sold stolen goods at a pawn shop. But research says that kleptomaniacs do it for the thrill, not to get money. What shall we do?

Answer:

Kleptomania is repeated occurence where a person cannot resist the impluse to steal things, and when the reason for this is not economic or need of something for own usage. A person can get caught in kleptomania if he or she steals something, and finds that this reduces anxiety. There is then a risk that the same method is repeated, the next time the person has unbearable anxiety.

A cleptomaniac gets stimulation, satisfaction and release during the actual act of stealing, in the same way as a shopping addict gets a "kick" out of shopping. This kick is caused by stimulation of the pleasure centers in the brain from signal substances in the brain. If the kleptomaniac is down or stressed, then she may feel a compulsion to steal in order to counteract the anxiety. That this is so is shown by the fact that female kleptomaniacs steal more in the days immediately before menstruation. Kleptomania thus has many similarities to alcohol and drug abuse.

In psychotherapeutic treatment of kleptomania, the patient lies on a couch and is helped to get into contact with the inner tension that urges her to kleptomania. The therapist helps the patient to get into contact with her inner psychic pain, she is helped to find better ways of handling her anxiety, and she learns to handle her problems in more rational ways.

The kleptomaniac does not aim at gaining money by stealing. If she sells the stolen goods, this is probably not kleptomania at the time of selling, but may still be kleptomania at the time of stealing.

Your brother's wife needs professional help with her anxiety. People close to her should talk honestly and openly with her, and set limits for her, before the police do this.

I treat cleptomania with gestalt therapy. The patient gets in contact with her anxiety ande learn other ways of dealing with her emotion than stealing.

Intelligent natural language question-answering in the area of psychology and psychiatry. Ask a simple question:
Local help Info
Google ad
End of ad
Disclaimer: The documents contained in this web site are presented for information purposes only. The material is in no way intended to replace professional medical care or attention by a qualified psychiatrist or psychotherapist. It can not and should not be used as a basis for diagnosis or choice of treatment. If you find anything wrong, please notify us at .
Go to top of page To top of page
Web4Health in other languages: Finnish German Greek Italian Polish Russian Swedish
Copyright 2003-2017 Web4Health.
Web4Health was selected as finalist for the 2008 Stockholm Challenge Award
Translate Web4Health
We seek voluntary translators who are interested in translating Web4Health to new languages. We can provide the servers, and pay you 50 % of the income from ads on pages, which you have translated. We are especially interested in translators from German To English, From German, Swedish or English to French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Finnish, Polish, Farsi, Russian.
web4health.info/en/tr/

Advertise here
Reach 300 000 visitors reading one million pages for a cost of 600 US $/month.
/en/ad/