The Psychology of Firesetting

In our long hot dry summers of Australia, we seem to be seeing an increasing number of destructive and terrifying bushfires, with many deliberately lit.

Recent research tells us that there has been an increase of nearly 40% in the number of bushfires in Australia, increasing from around 3200 in 2007 to nearly 5000 in 2013. 

And it has been estimated that about 13% of these are deliberately set, with 37% more being ‘suspicious’, with costs to our economy of about $1.6 billion a year.

Psychologists now refer to deliberately lit fires as the act of Firesetting, which includes Pyromania and Arson.  Pyromania is an impulse-control psychological disorder in which the individual gets intense pleasure or gratification from the fire.  Arson is the criminal act of setting a fire usually for a specific purpose such as to obtain insurance money.

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