Forensic Psychotherapy and Group Analysis

Abstract

Forensic Psychotherapy is a new discipline, the offspring of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy. Its aim is the psychodynamic understanding of offenders and their consequent treatment, regardless of the seriousness of the offence. It involves the understanding of the unconscious as well as the conscious motivations of the criminal mind, and of particular offence behaviour. It does not seek to condone the crime or to excuse the criminal. On the contrary, the object is to help offenders to acknowledge their responsibility for acts and thereby to save both offenders and society from further crimes. The more we understand about the criminal mind the more possible it becomes to take positive preventive action. This, in turn, should lead to better management and the implementation of more cost-effective treatment of patients. This paper deals with the basic facts of forensic psychotherapy as practised in a National Health Service outpatient clinic, the Portman Clinic, where I have worked for over 20 years. Other settings such as special hospitals, medium secure units and therapeutic communities are of great importance, but not directly addressed here, although the same principles obtain in these institutions.