“When I sat down to read this book, I decided to fasten my seat-belt. There are people so desperate that they are willing to commit terrible crimes to get their message across, and there are carers so assaulted that they must put safety before care. Not a book to read before bedtime you might say. However I’m not sure that this is setting the scene correctly, because, when I read it, in addition to the psychopathology of desperation, there is the capacity to reflect on it, and to give despair the meaning it should have, and to do so with a greatly reassuring power.” --From the Foreword by Bob Hinshelwood, Member of the British Psychoanalytic Society, Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Professor in the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, UK “[The book] may stand as an unusually bold and uncompromising example of psychodynamically informed action research and the contribution this can offer, drawing on the intelligence afforded by emotional experience, to the restoring of both meaning and agency. Viewed in this way, the book both speaks to and has a relevance for practitioners, managers and consultants well beyond the boundaries of just one signal enterprise.” --From the Afterword by David Armstrong, Principal Consultant at the Tavistock Consultancy Service, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust John Gordon is a Consultant Adult Psychotherapist in the National Health Service and works in a Forensic Psychotherapy Department; at the Cassel Hospital, He is Lecturer in the Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck College, University of London and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College Medical School. A co-author with Stuart Whiteley of Group Approaches in Psychiatry. His most recent Contribution, ‘Some neglected clinical material from Bion’s ‘Experiences in groups:a prototypal interpretation’, will appear in Bion Today edited by Chris. Gabriel Kirtchuk is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy/Forensic and Psychoanalyst. He has worked in forensic settings for the last fi fteen years and has established a Department of Forensic Psychotherapy within a medium secure unit. For the last six years he has held the position of Lead Clinician of the National Forensic Psychotherapy Training and Development Strategy. R.D. Hinshelwood is a Member of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He was previously Clinical Director of The Cassel Hospital and is currently Professor at the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. He is the author of A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought (1989), and Clinical Klein (1995). He has written widely on therapeutic communities, and the psychoanalysis of organizations, Thinking about Institutions (2001); and published a book on psychoanalysis and ethics, Therapy or Coercion (1997). Contents Introduction; 1) Caring Amid Victims and Perpetrators; 2) The Dreaded and Dreading Patient and Therapist; 3) X-treme Group Analysis: On the Countertransference Edge; 4) Bearable or Unbearable? Unconscious communication in management; 5) Thoughts from Consulting in Secure Settings: Do Forensic Institutions Need Psychotherapy?; 6) Interpersonal Dynamics in the Everyday Practice of a Forensic Unit; Conclusion: The role of a Psychotherapy Department in the Large Forensic Services. “This is a fascinating read for mental health workers regardless of their own theoretical background. Working with disturbed and disturbing individuals in secure settings produces strong feelings, and working with those feelings is undoubtedly an essential part of providing care effectively. This book is likely to challenge readers' understandings of their own actions and reactions.” -- Dr Neil Brimblecombe, Director of Mental Health Nursing, Department of Health, and Nurse Director, Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust |