| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Psychiatric Bulletin | Advances in Psychiatric Treatment | All RCPsych Journals |
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
1 Medical Director, Henderson Hospital, Sutton, Surrey
A follow-up study of 122 consecutive discharges from a Therapeutic Community which specializes in the treatment of psychopaths showed an improvement rate of 40.1 per cent in terms of no further convictions nor psychiatric admissions in a two-year period.
Of the 87 with a previous history of convictions 38 (43.6 per cent) were not convicted in two years, and of 66 with a history of psychiatric hospital admission prior to the present one 38 (57.5 per cent) had no further psychiatric admission in two years.
Prognostic factors are studied, and those indicative of a good outcome are concerned with previous ability to achieve success in school, work and interpersonal relationships, together with a capacity for emotional feeling and involvement.
These factors are seen in terms of levels of emotional maturity, and the importance of matching the treatment situation to the capacity of the subject for emotional appreciation and control is once again stressed.
The Therapeutic Community of the highly differentiated dynamic and stressful type here described is of benefit to the psychopath who is not grossly emotionally immature and has some potential for personality growth (`creative psychopath') in a stimulating and permissive environment. It is of less benefit and could be harmful to the more immature, persistently acting-out psychopath (`inadequate psychopath'), and it is doubtful if it can be of benefit to the totally egocentric, impulsive, thought-disordered and primitive personality (`aggressive psychopath').
Submitted on February 24, 1969
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  K. Hoffmann and T. Kluttig Special Section: Psychoanalytic and Group-Analytic Perspectives in Forensic Psychotherapy Group Analysis, March 1, 2006; 39(1): 9 - 23. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 K. Norton, J. Lousada, and K. Healy Specialist personality disorder services in England: a case for managed clinical networks? Psychiatr. Bull., October 1, 2005; 29(10): 365 - 368. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. Shine Characteristics of Inmates Admitted to Grendon Therapeutic Prison and Their Relationships to Length of Stay Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol, April 1, 2001; 45(2): 252 - 265. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J.M. Turner Therapeutic environment of secure units: a feasibility study of the interactions between people working and accessing a secure unit for people with learning disabilities J Intellect Disabil., September 1, 1998; 2(3): 150 - 162. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. S. Whiteley Attachment, Loss and the Space between: Personality Disorder in the Therapeutic Community Group Analysis, December 1, 1994; 27(4): 359 - 383.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 B. M. Dolan, C. Evans, and J. Wilson Therapeutic Community Treatment for Personality Disordered Adults: Changes in Neurotic Symptomatology on Follow-Up International Journal of Social Psychiatry, December 1, 1992; 38(4): 243 - 250. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. F. Ciruli The Psychopath: The Law on the Boundary Line Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol, January 1, 1978; 22(1): 80 - 90.
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Psychiatric Bulletin | Advances in Psychiatric Treatment | All RCPsych Journals |
