1,721,023 research outputs found
Pathways into terrorism:the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Full text linkThis paper contains the reflections of the first author as a forensic psychologist working with convicted terrorists in prison between 2008 and 2011, and subsequently as an academic and government consultant in this field. The task of making sense of this learning has been helped by a psychoanalytic understanding of the causes of terrorism by the second author who is a psychotherapist and group analyst. Psychoanalytic processes of defences, splitting and projection throw light on the potential unconscious thoughts, feelings and behaviour of those who resort to terrorism. Two broad groups are identified whose motivations are ostensibly noble cause and criminality respectively, but whose involvement also serves to avenge their personal humiliations and feelings of injustice that are projected into a political cause. A third group is also described of mainly lone actors motivated by pathological narcissism. It is proposed that terrorism manifests as a political phenomenon but is also a form of communication that reveals much about the state of mind of those who choose to become involved
Trauma and abuse
No full textIn this paper I reflect on my work with adult patients and the Tavistock based sexually abused girls study. I discuss two young women who came for help with their relationships, but subsequently disclosed having been sexually abused as children. I was particularly interested since contrary to what one might expect, the young woman who seemed to enjoy better relationship with her mother did less well in treatment. These two patients are contrasting and this underlines the importance of focussing on specific aspects of the primary maternal object relationship that are unique to each individual in understanding the ability to benefit from therapy. Important features shared across the two patients such as PTSD, the distortion of time, and the role of the father are considered. The timing of the disclosure is also an issue. Both patients elicit strong countertransference responses that were difficult to manage and the value of supervision was stressed. The author tries to address two questions, why the patient who had a better maternal relationship did not benefit as much, secondly the point in treatment when the disclosure occurred
Pandemic: challenges in care and recovery
No full textOur experiences through the pandemic have to be viewed by reflecting on the year and a half that has been, but also what we have learnt through this experience, with a view to taking forward. The article intends to approach this topic, from a health and social care perspective coming from the author working in The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, a healthcare organisation, but also importantly, from a relational perspective in how we interact organisationally, as a health & social care system that is part of a wider society in this city, across the UK and the wider world. The article not only comments on systemic inequalities that have become stark in the pandemic, but also identifies corrosive and deliberate counter narratives to the themes of care and courage in this period. It concludes that the pre-existing silos of separation between the privileged and dispossessed have prevented survival and wellbeing in the wider society. The process of recovering from the pandemic is not just about the restoration of physical wellbeing but also the creation of healthier conditions in society that actively vitiate against the scourge of everyday sadism
Seeing, mirroring, desiring: The impact of the analyst's pregnant body on the patient's body image
No full textThe paper explores the impact of the analyst's pregnant body on the course of two analyses, a young man, and a young woman, specifically focusing on how each patient's visual perception and affective experience of being with the analyst's pregnant body affected their own body image and subjective experience of their body. The pre-verbal or 'subsymbolic' material evoked in the analyses contributed to a greater understanding of the patients' developmental experiences in infancy and adolescence, which had resulted in both carrying a profoundly distorted body image into adulthood. The analyst's pregnancy offered a therapeutic window in which a shift in the patient's body image could be initiated. Clinical material is presented in detail with reference to the psychoanalytic literature on the pregnant analyst, and that of the development of the body image, particularly focusing on the role of visual communication and the face. The author proposes a theory of psychic change, drawing on Bucci's multiple code theory, in which the patients' unconscious or 'subsymbolic' awareness of her pregnancy, which were manifest in their bodily responses, feeling states and dreams, as well as in the analyst s countertransference, could gradually be verbalized and understood within the transference. Thus visual perception, or 'external seeing', could gradually become 'internal seeing', or insight into unconscious phantasies, leading to a shift in the patients internal object world towards a less persecutory state and more realistic appraisal of their body image
The Fitzjohn’s Unit
No full textThis article provides a description of the development and work of The Fitzjohn’s Unit a specialist service, housed within the Adult Department of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, providing psychoanalytic psychotherapy for patients suffering from the more complex/serious disorders many of them having been unwell for many decades. The paper describes the patients treated, the model of care and also aims to show how this work can illuminate more general consideration such as the nature of the psychoanalytic attitude and the relation of psychiatry to psychoanalysis
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