Archives of Forensic Psychopathology

• abdicare — The act or process by which a person formally relinquishes a right, an administrative function, or a legal responsibility, analyzed in forensic psychiatry from the perspective of the integrity of discernment. In the psychopathology of volition, the term denotes the dynamic suspension of the ego's executive functions, leading to states of profound apathy, learned helplessness, or psychic capitulation in the face of major traumatic stress.