I didn't want to do this. Self-incrimination in psychiatry - causes and consequences In psychiatric practice, there are cases when patients attribute to their own illnesses actions that were clearly not part of their previous context. We are talking about self-incrimination - a deliberate false admission of guilt in a crime that did not occur. A rarer situation is when defendants plead guilty to crimes they had no idea about. Such confessions require a more detailed analysis of the psychological state of the sick person or another qualified specialist. In this way, what was originally considered the task of psychiatrists occurs. They play the role of assistants to the investigator in his work on conducting criminal cases. The psychiatrist will look for inconsistencies in the testimony of his sick patient and the already available investigation data, and will help him understand the nature of his doubts.