Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Graeme Galton was born in Australia and is an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist working in private practice and in the National Health Service. His clinical work is particularly influenced by attachment and psychodynamic theories. He is a consultant psychotherapist at the Clinic for Dissociative Studies. He also works at the Parkside Clinic in London with individuals and groups in an outpatient psychotherapy service. He teaches trainee psychotherapists at The Bowlby Centre, where he is a registered member and training supervisor. Adah Sachs has worked for many years as a psychotherapist in psychiatric hospitals, first at St Clements (the Royal London Hospital) and then at Huntercombe Manor, a special hospital for adolescents. She is a visiting lecturer and a training supervisor at the Centre for Child Mental Health and at the Centre for Attachment-based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, as well as in her private practice.

'It is important to have a book that raises such complex and provocative questions as few professionals have received any adequate training in this subject.'- Dr Estela V. Welldon MD DSc(Hon) F.R.C.Psych., Founder and Honorary President for life of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy'This is an excellent and groundbreaking collection of papers that dares to consider a subject that society finds too painful to consider. Extreme and sustained crimes against a young child, whether committed within the family or by organised groups, can have a shattering and far-reaching effect on their sense of self and capacity to form secure attachments to others. These devastating consequences are made worse if they also face public denial and disbelief when they dare to speak of the crimes against them. The international contributors to this volume have done a superb job of bringing understanding to this complex subject. A long-overdue and valuable book.'- Sir Richard Bowlby'This text is an absolute tour de force. It presents a wide ranging examination of the relationship between Dissociative Disorders - the effects of being exposed to a climate of extreme trauma and family violence - and forensic issues - relating to the court context. Perspectives from mental health, police, legal practitioners, and the voices of those suffering from the experiences provide important insights. The vexed issues of credibility, and responsibility for the 'en-actment' of violence perpetrated as a result of internalising 'malevolent' figures are not avoided. The field has been advanced through the work presented here.'- Dr Arnon Bentovim, Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst and Family Therapist

• Series Foreword , Introduction , Satanist ritual abuse and the problem of credibility , Unsolved: investigating allegations of ritual abuse , The Extreme Abuse Surveys: preliminary findings regarding dissociative identity disorder , The protectors of the secrets , Am I safe yet? , Dissociative identity disorder and criminal responsibility , When murder moves inside , When the imaginary becomes the real: reflections of a bemused psychoanalyst , Some clinical implications of believing or not believing the patient , Infanticidal attachment: the link between dissociative identity disorder and crime , Letter from a general practitioner , Corroboration in the body tissues , Opening Pandora's box , From social conditioning to mind control , Mind control: simple to complex