The authors in a closely reasoned and convincing way argue that the insanity defense should be abolished. They offer other solutions that would both protect the community and be humane. They attribute the present cloudy state of affairs to the ambivalence surrounding the 'sick … criminal which is reflected in conflicting wishes to exculpate and to blame; to sanction and not to sanction; to degrade and to elevate; to stigmatize and not to stigmatize; to care and to reject; to treat and to mistreat; to protect and to destroy'. They conclude that the abolition of the insanity defense would do away with the knotty problem of determining