Applications de la réalité virtuelle en psychiatrie légale : la perspective de l’autorégulation comme cadre théorique
Résumé
Forensic psychiatry is the field whose expertise is the assessment and treatment of offen-ding behaviours, in particular when offenses are related to mental illness. An underlying question for alletiological models concerns the manner in which an individual’s behaviours are organized. Specifically,it becomes crucial to understand how certain individuals come to display maladaptive behaviours in agiven environment, especially when considering issues such as offenders’ responsibility and their abilityto change their behaviours.Virtual reality. – Thanks to its ability to generate specific environments, associated with a high expe-rimental control on generated simulations, virtual reality is gaining recognition in forensic psychiatry.Virtual reality has generated promising research data and may turn out to be a remarkable clinical toolin the near future. While research has increased, a conceptual work about its theoretical underpinningsis still lacking. However, no important benefit should be expected from the introduction of a new tool (asinnovative as virtual reality) without an explicit and heuristic theoretical framework capable of clarifyingits benefits in forensic psychiatry.Objectives. – Our paper introduces self-regulation perspective as the most suitable theoretical frameworkfor virtual reality in forensic psychiatry. It will be argued that virtual reality does not solely help to increaseecological validity. However, it does allow one to grant access to an improved understanding of violentoffending behaviours by probing into the underlying mechanisms involved in the self-regulation of beha-viours in a dynamical environment. Illustrations are given as well as a discussion regarding perspectivesin the use of virtual reality in forensic psychiatry.
Les applications de la réalité virtuelle se multiplient en psychiatrie légale. En plus d’améliorer significa-tivement la validité écologique des designs de recherche et des évaluations cliniques, la réalité virtuelletend également à s’imposer comme un outil d’intervention clinique privilégié. Toutefois, la pertinencede la réalité virtuelle en psychiatrie légale ne se limite pas à une seule dimension méthodologique, maistient en grande partie au cadre théorique auquel elle fait appel. En permettant de rendre compte dela dynamique entre un agent et son environnement, la réalité virtuelle offre un dispositif unique pourétudier l’autorégulation des comportements violents telle qu’elle est susceptible de se vivre en milieuxnaturels, mais par le biais de la simulation graphique en immersion virtuelle.