The hunting licence: a mirror of mental health?

The term hunting licence, known in Austria as the Jagdkarte and in Switzerland as the Jagdpatent, and referred to elsewhere as a hunting licence, denotes official documents that permit the holder to engage in hobby hunting.

While the hunting licence is officially a document that allows a person to hunt wild animals, in certain contexts it is also used as a metaphor for people who, owing to mental illness or lack of legal capacity, are regarded as «not fully accountable».

The colloquial use of the term hunting licence as a synonym for lack of accountability brings with it a whole range of cultural, social and psychological aspects.

Tarzisius Caviezel, hunting president in the canton of Grisons, describes hunting as an illness from which he cannot be cured. He argues that hunting is a hobby. His favourite quotation is:

There is never so much lying as before an election, during a war and after a hunt. – Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898).

The hunting licence points to the diverse perceptions of mental health in society.

By contrast, the term is used ironically or metaphorically to characterise people who find themselves in states of concern for their health, without possessing the necessary insight or self-control.

In criminal slang this is called the little hunting licence. Even in earlier times, the passionate hobby hunter without a hunting licence would drive into the forest at night to poach. A strikingly large number of hobby hunters are also involved in killings such as school massacres.

At the point where violence discharges, damage is caused just as much as at the point it is directed towards. And this happens very concretely at the neuronal level. Scientists have discovered this through their studies. Neuropsychologists confirm it too: the amygdala, a nuclear region in the brain, is noticeably atrophied or disturbed in violent offenders. If this central part of the brain is defective, the sense of disgust, among other things, is switched off.

Anyone who obtains a hunting licence therefore always receives two things: a licence to kill and a licence to grow stupid.

Psychological aspects

The connection between a hunting licence and diminished responsibility also raises questions about how mental illness is perceived in society. Humour that draws on such topics can have a destigmatising effect, but it can also help people burdened with mental strain feel supported. However, this irony can also lead to serious problems not being taken sufficiently seriously.

In the context of hobby hunting and hunting fever, psychologists, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts speak of psychological defects in hobby hunters. Hobby hunters want to kill! Many hobby hunters are damaged by the hunting virus.

Are there differences between hobby hunters and serial killers? Both are sick (hunting fever) and have a strong craving for power and control. Hunting can be a first symptom of a dangerous psychopathy that is not confined to animals alone. Many studies prove that acts of violence against animals demand our full attention!

Both the serial murderer and the hobby hunter believe they are taking part in something important.

When killing, both feel the same as when consuming drugs. A temporary relief, a calming passes through their body and mind – until, in the grip of hunting fever, they must once again set off in search of a victim. There is no denying that hunting is also accompanied by other illegal activities such as poaching, arms smuggling, crime, alcohol abuse, and so on, and that sociopathy is fostered.

I do not mean to suggest that most hunters are weak people, but in my experience weak people often enough use the opportunity to compensate for their flaw by hunting or by playing around with guns and knives. «The Anatomy of Motive» by FBI profiler John Douglas

Relevant hunting magazines are full of images of hobby hunters in the throes of hunting fever, holding a weapon in their hand and posing in a dominating position over their victims. Any soldier or police officer would be dishonourably discharged from service and committed to a psychiatric clinic if they portrayed themselves in front of their victim the way hobby hunters do. Such magazines stir the imagination of hobby hunters to want to hunt more and more, in every corner of the world too. Hobby hunters need such photographs and films in order to feel important.

On an increasing number of websites it is forbidden to publish trophy photos of any kind by hobby hunters, as this offends against the good custom of morality and decency.

In the grip of hunting fever, hunting weapons lead to abuse in all our social lives. Time and again there are suicides with firearms, threats and fatal tragedies. There are studies showing that 90% of violent criminals started out as animal abusers or hobby hunters. Year after year countless people are killed and injured by hobby hunters and hunting weapons, some so severely that they end up in a wheelchair or have to have limbs amputated.

Hobby hunters have already been subjected to psychological and sociological studies both in Europe and in the USA and compared with non-hunters in various respects. The results clearly show that hobby hunters have no greater affinity with nature than non-hunters, tend to view topics of animal, environmental and nature protection rather negatively, and generally display a higher tendency towards aggressive behaviour – a typical characteristic of meat eaters. Hunters' love of animals and nature does not delight in the existence of the beloved object – rather, it aims to possess the beloved creature body and soul, and culminates in making it prey through the act of killing.

More on this in the dossier: Psychology of hunting

Current relevance: the Grupp case

How little the psychological suitability of hunting licence holders is checked in practice was shown in 2026 by the case of former Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp. After a suicide attempt that was made public, he voluntarily surrendered his hunting licence and weapons; an officially ordered suitability check had never previously taken place. More on this in our article «The Grupp case: who really checks hobby hunters psychologically?».

Further articles

• Are hobby hunters psychopaths?
• Hobby hunters on the psychological seesaw
• Aggression: understanding hobby hunters better
• Sadism: understanding hobby hunters better
• Trophies: the pleasure hunt
• Alcohol: hobby hunters and the drinking problem
• Hunting and hunters: a psychoanalysis
• Hobby hunters and violence in our society