Psychic Assaults and Frightened Clinicians

John Gordon is a Founder Member of the British Psychoanalytic Association and Senior Member of both the British Psychotherapy Foundation and the Institute of Group Analysis. Previously he was Consultant Adult Psychotherapist in a Forensic Psychotherapy Department and at the Cassel Hospital. He is Senior Lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University where, in collaboration with West London Mental Health NHS Trust, he co-organises, teaches and facilitates an experiential group on an MSc in Psychodynamic Approaches in Mental Health. He is co-author with the late Stuart Whiteley of 'Group Approaches in Psychiatry' (1979), co-editor of 'Psychic Assaults: Countertransference in Forensic Settings' (2008) and co-author of 'Interpersonal Dynamics Consultation: A Manual for Clinicians' (2013). He has published many papers on the development of Bion's thinking on psychosis and its application to clinical work with individuals, groups and organisations. He currently practices privately as a psychoanalyst and supervisor. Professor Gabriel Kirtchuk is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy (Forensic) and a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society. He is the Head of the Forensic Psychotherapy Department at West London Mental Health NHS Trust where, in collaboration with Buckinghamshire New University, he developed and is co-leader of an MSc in Psychotherapeutic Approaches in Mental Health. He and his colleagues have developed over the years a manual which facilitates the systematic study of transference/counter-transference patterns by means of consultations with multi-disciplinary teams, particularly in in-patient forensic settings; more recently this approach has been extended to services in the community as well as generic psychiatric, child and adolescent settings. Until recently he was Lead Clinician of the National Forensic Psychotherapy Training and Development Strategy, a post he held for many years. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College Medical School and Chair of the Forensic Psychotherapy Society, a Member Institution of the BPC.

'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 R.D. 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'...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.)'[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 TrustContributors: Anne Aiyegbusi, David Armstrong, John Gordon, Sharman Harding, R.D. Hinshelwood, Gabriel Kirtchuk, Michael Mercer, Claire Miller, Carine Minne, David Reiss, Stanley Ruszczynski, Gillian Tuck, Kiriakos Xenitidis

• Series Foreword , Foreword , Introduction , Caring amid victims and perpetrators: trauma and forensic mental health nursing , The dreaded and dreading patient and therapist , X-treme group analysis: on the countertransference edge in inpatient work with forensic patients , Bearable or unbearable? Unconscious communication in management , Thoughts from consulting in secure settings: do forensic institutions need psychotherapy? , Interpersonal dynamics in the everyday practice of a forensic unit , Conclusion , Afterword