Curriculum · Mental Health / Psychiatry
Impulse control disorders (kleptomania and pyromania)
What it is
Kleptomania, the irresistible impulse to steal, and pyromania, the irresistible impulse to set a fire, are considered among the impulse control disorders. Each is named for the single act, and the act happens because the impulse cannot be resisted, not because of the wider pattern of aggression and violation of rules that marks conduct disorder.
How it is diagnosed
The trap is a child who both steals and sets fires and yet has neither of these two disorders. A 14 years old boy brought by his mother after the police caught him stealing a neighbor's bicycle, suspected of being involved in a recent arson in the adjacent neighborhood, performing poorly at school, and with a history of fighting and truancy at school since the age of 10, has conduct disorder. Conduct disorder is characterized by aggression toward people and animals, deceitfulness, destruction of property and violation of rules, and it is that wide pattern, rather than one irresistible act, which separates it from kleptomania and from pyromania.