During the summer, fires are more frequent compared to the rest of the year. And if they are sometimes due to the climate, some are the work of arsonists, that is to say of people attracted by the starting flames. But what are the psychic mechanisms which, in these individuals, dictate the passage to the act?
In psychiatry, pyromania is considered a serious behavioral disorder, marked by a desire to be spectacular in the eyes of the world and, on the contrary, to be discreet for oneself.
This dysfunction often refers to “a particular issue of psychoaffective and sexual development,” psychiatrist Pierre Lamothe told CNEWS. Indeed, adds this former head of the regional medico-psychological service (SMPR) of Lyon and expert approved by the Court of Cassation, “the arsonist sets fire to enjoy the visual spectacle”.
For Pierre Lamothe, who is also an expert in criminology, the functioning of an arsonist is in short “to that of many other immature criminals. The arsonist thus does not feel responsible for what happens (the consequences of his actions), but only for what he wanted (to satisfy an irrepressible need) ”.
Finally, in 99% of cases, the arsonist is a man, adds the doctor. He has a split, two-sided personality. The first is very basic socially. He has a stable public life.
But its dark side, “its secret garden is fire,” explains Pierre Lamothe. An activity that he keeps hidden, very isolated from the rest of his life. Concretely, there is no direct link between what he burns, on the one hand, and his life or his emotional interests, on the other hand ”.
A person “very difficult to care for”
To persuade an arsonist to change his behavior, you must first make him understand that he is an arsonist. “He must realize that he has had a huge problem since childhood with aggression,” testifies Pierre Lamothe.
A task far from easy, because, often, he grew up in a very framed environment “in which one does not have the right to revolt”.
Above all, “they are difficult to cure because they don’t feel guilty. They hide behind the fact that it is chance that wanted their mini gesture to do maximum damage, ”decrypts the psychiatrist.
More worryingly, this behavioral disorder can even turn out to be contagious. Indeed, specialists agree in saying that the images of fires can exert in certain profiles a kind of fascination, to the point of triggering in them these impulses of pyromania.
For the rest, the arsonist is often placed – wrongly – in the same category as the arsonist. However, the two profiles are quite distinct.
Indeed, if the arsonist is part of an egocentric approach when he starts a fire, the arsonist does so in a determined way, on a specific object. “People capable of setting fire to a school or a car are more part of this system than pyromania,” Pierre Lamothe further analyzes.
Ultimately, the arsonist knows he is responsible, “he uses the destructive weapon of fire to reach someone”, concludes the specialist, which is not the objective of the arsonist.