Bringing our light out from under the bushel: the unrealised potential of forensic psychotherapy

Abstract

It is proposed that forensic psychotherapy has a number of unique capacities that make it better placed than other related disciplines to advise the magistracy about the risks and threats that offenders might pose to the safety of society. Its capacity to humanise our criminal justice system in particular, is one important way in which to minimise the risk of dangerousness rather than adding to it. At a time when the world is under the sway of regressive forces that promote the type of splitting that leads to a culture of punishment, it is more important than ever that forensic psycho-analysts and psychotherapists, as they have done so with this IAFP conference, organise themselves, find a voice and find effective ways of demonstrating the value and utility of our unique understanding of the dangerous mind and its manifestations and the societal symptom that it represents.