Maudsley Lectures in Psychoanalysis | The Victim in the Perpetrator and the Perpetrator in the Victim: Introduction to Forensic Psychotherapy - Jessica Yakeley

Maudsley Lectures in Psychoanalysis | Autumn 2024

Violence in Mind: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Forensic Work

The Victim in the Perpetrator and the Perpetrator in the Victim: Introduction to Forensic Psychotherapy

Jessica Yakeley

Monday 7th October 2024

7:30pm - 9:00pm (BST)

Hybrid

In-person at 10 Windsor Walk and Online via Zoom.

Recording available for 1 week following the event for registered participants.

Violence is inherently relational: there is always a victim and always a perpetrator, often in the same person. Rooted in disturbed early object relationships, trauma and disordered attachments, violence erupts from failures and distortions of mentalizing, and may represent a communication with unconscious meaning.

This talk will introduce the discipline of forensic psychotherapy, exploring the relationship between the internal world and unconscious motivations of the offender, and the external world of criminal justice, retribution and rehabilitation. Contemporary psychoanalytic theories regarding the aetiology of violent, antisocial and psychopathic behaviour will be explored, and a psychoanalytic framework for working with violent patients, focusing on the setting and containment, specific therapeutic interventions, and how to use our countertransference in the assessment of risk will be presented.

Jessica Yakeley is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Forensic Psychotherapy and Director of the Portman Clinic, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She is also a Supervising and Training Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She has published widely on psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic approaches to topics including medical education, violence, forensic psychotherapy, risk assessment, psychopathy, paraphilic disorders, and antisocial personality disorder. She was the Editor of the journal Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from 2012-2021. 

Acts of violence have long been a source of fascination and bewilderment, not least because the shock of their impact invites a particular type of thinking, or non-thinking. When confronted with unthinkable, or apparently mindless, acts, we are all vulnerable to locating the source of violence in the 'offender', and not seeing the links with the violence, both interpersonal and structural, in our families, communities and societies. This lecture series will offer participants an opportunity to engage with a range of contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives on understanding and thinking about different types of violence, in minds and deeds. There will be a combination of theory and clinical presentations. This series has relevance for those who are experienced and those who are new to this area. 

REFUND POLICY: Tickets are fully refundable until 14 days before the lecture, after which time no refunds will be issued.

Concession tickets are available, for students, BPAS candidates and NHS trainees and nurses. Please email outreach@iopa.org.uk if you are unsure if you qualify for a concession ticket.

Views and opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Institute, event organisers or other speakers. We expect delegates to respect the confidentiality of clinical material discussed in our events. The content must not be recorded, conveyed or disseminated in any format and participants must not share access to the event with non-registered participants.