NCJ Number
168168
Editor(s)
E V Welldon,
C Van Velsen
Date Published
1997
Length
319 pages
Annotation
Chapters examine a range of psychopathologies associated with various criminal or potentially criminal behaviors; chapters are presented under the topics of case studies; society, law, and psychiatry; and audit and research.
Abstract
An introductory chapter on forensic psychotherapy notes that it is a new discipline that is 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 motivations of particular offense behavior. Management and treatment are discussed in another introductory chapter. Thirty-two case studies focus on the psychodynamics of patients who have engaged in various criminal or deviant behaviors, along with the evolution of psychotherapeutic treatment and its outcome. Some of the behaviors examined are incest, delinquency, sexual abuse, murder, arson, self-mutilating and violent behavior, drug addiction, rape, exhibitionism, voyeurism, prostitution, burglary, fraud, and shoplifting. Four chapters on society, law, and psychiatry consider the forensic psychiatrist's responsibilities within the legal system, with attention to psychological assessments within the legal system, the mentally ill defendant in the adversarial process, and medico-legal ethics in forensic psychotherapy. Two chapters address audit and research in the field of forensic psychotherapy. For individual chapters, see NCJ-168169-206. 269 references and subject and author indexes