Two cases are presented, which were subject to expert psychiatric eval
uation during criminal proceedings, and in which deviant behaviour in
young adults appears to be causally associated with severe mental diso
rder in their mothers and with severe pathological family functioning.
In the first case, a young man killed first his father and then, afte
r an interval of 10 years, his mother. In the second case, the mother
and grandmother of a child aged 15 had prevented virtually all contact
with the outside world (school, friends, outside activities of any ki
nd) over a period of 10 years. These cases illustrate that expert eval
uation should not be limited to an individual (evaluation of diagnosis
and of criminal responsibility) but should be linked to an assessment
of the functioning of the entire family group and to the psychopathol
ogy of other family members.