Forensic Psychotherapy: The Practical Approach (From A Practical Guide to Forensic Psychotherapy, P 13-19, 1997, Estela V Welldon and Cleo Van Velsen, eds. -- See NCJ-168168)

• NCJ Number: 168169
• Author(s): E V Welldon
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This paper provides an overview of the concepts, procedures, and dynamics of forensic psychotherapy, with attention to its practice in Great Britain.

Abstract

Forensic psychotherapy is a new discipline, being the offspring of forensic psychiatry and psychoanalytical psychotherapy. Its aim is the psychodynamic comprehension of the offender and his/her consequent treatment, regardless of the seriousness of the offense. It involves understanding the unconscious, as well as the conscious, motivations of the criminal mind and of particular offense behavior. The objective of forensic psychotherapy is to help the offender acknowledge responsibility for his/her acts and thereby to save the offender and society from additional offending. Forensic psychotherapy has gone beyond the special relationship between patient and psychotherapist; there is a triangle: patient, psychotherapist, and society. The treatment of the forensic patient population should ideally be conducted within the National Health Service (Great Britain) rather than within the private sector. Forensic psychotherapy must be considered in the overall context of health care for those involved in the criminal justice process. Still, evaluations should be conducted independently according to health-based criteria. This paper briefly discusses the criminal act from the perspective of forensic psychotherapy, followed by a conceptualization of the forensic patient. Aspects of treatment procedure discussed are the assessment, the circumstances of assessment, forensic psychotherapy in an institutional setting, transference, and counter-transference.