The Contribution of Dynamic Psychotherapy to Forensic Psychiatry and Vice Versa

Extract

Many activities undertaken by the forensic psychiatrist have nothing to do with dynamic psychotherapy, and rightly so. Likewise, the main thrust of dynamic psychotherapy, is independent of forensic issues. Nevertheless, there is a preserve of clinical responsibility within forensic psychiatry which, on occasion, justly invokes the aid of dynamic psychotherapy. This may be when the scope of the patient's treatment, already initiated by the forensic psychiatrist, needs to be enlarged to include dynamic psychotherapy, or when assessment of intrapsychic processes calls for prolonged engagement with the patient at depth, within the proximity provided in a therapeutic setting. For example, the complex task of disentangling amnesia or pseudo-amnesia from repression is one which no one experienced in either field would regard as easy.