An impaired mental conodition, also known as “diminished capacity” in criminal law. It is a defense asserted that the defendant’s mental functions were impaired as a result of some reason or excuse, for example, an “irresistible impulse.” It is a type of temporary insanity. This defense is the law in California and mad famous by the John Bobbit case, where his wife Lorena was found to have been suffering from an irresistible impulse to sexually wound her husband and found not guilty.