While theft can be dishonest, criminal, or even theft due to economic hardship, it can also be the result of poor impulse control or addictive compulsive disorder. This is the case with kleptomania.

From the Greek “kleptès”, to steal, and “mania”, madness, kleptomania or kleptomania is a psychological disorder which is characterized by a repeated inability to resist the urge to steal. People with kleptomania don’t steal for personal gain, but simply to release the growing tension if they don’t take action. Their impulses are accompanied by tensions, anxieties which give way to euphoria once the object has been stolen. But the relief will only be short-lived because a feeling of shame will quickly take over. Theft usually happens spontaneously, without planning, in stores, supermarkets, public places, or even at friends’ homes. Stolen objects are, most of the time, of no commercial value and of no use to the kleptomaniac, this is also often the way to differentiate kleptomaniacs from thieves. The kleptomaniac sometimes returns the stolen object, gets rid of it or gives it away. If no statistics have looked at the number of people affected by this personality disorder, it is estimated that around 0,5 to 1% of the population would be affected and that a quarter of the thieves arrested could actually be kleptomaniacs. Another observation is that the majority of kleptomaniacs are women.

Little is known about the origins of kleptomania and kleptomaniacs never recognize themselves as sick. While additional research is needed to better understand it, particularly at the neuronal level, genetics and biology may explain some of the causes of kleptomania, in particular the presence of bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders, drug addiction disorders or even personality disorders. It could also be a response to an affective or even sexual disorder or even to eating disorders (a quarter of bulimics have kleptomaniacal behaviors). There may also be a history of psychotrauma. Often close to obsessive-compulsive disorder, kleptomania is, in the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), classified as “impulse control disorders”.

Arrest is very often the moment when the kleptomaniac becomes aware of a serious problem. It sometimes leads to cognitive and behavioral therapy, which can also be a legal obligation. An opportunity to learn to develop control over one’s behavior but also to go back to the deeper cause, an injury, a suffering that could be named. Mindfulness meditation can also be effective in managing impulsivity.