Psychic Assaults and Frightened Clinicians

'When I sat down to read this book, I decided to fasten my seat-belt. There are people so desperate that they are willing to commit terrible crimes to get their message across, and there are carers so assaulted that they must put safety before care. Not a book to read before bedtime you might say. However I'm not sure that this is setting the scene correctly, because, when I read it, in addition to the psychopathology of desperation, there is the capacity to reflect on it, and to give despair the meaning it should have, and to do so with a greatly reassuring power.' - From the Foreword by R.D. Hinshelwood, Member of the British Psychoanalytic Society, Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Professor in the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, UK'...a fascinating read for mental health workers regardless of their own theoretical background. Working with disturbed and disturbing individuals in secure settings produces strong feelings, and working with those feelings is undoubtedly an essential part of providing care effectively. This book is likely to challenge readers' understandings of their own actions and reactions.'- Dr Neil Brimblecombe, Director of Mental Health Nursing, Department of Health, and Nurse Director, Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust.)'[The book] may stand as an unusually bold and uncompromising example of psychodynamically informed action research and the contribution this can offer, drawing on the intelligence afforded by emotional experience, to the restoring of both meaning and agency. Viewed in this way, the book both speaks to and has a relevance for practitioners, managers and consultants well beyond the boundaries of just one signal enterprise.' - From the Afterword by David Armstrong, Principal Consultant at the Tavistock Consultancy Service, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation TrustContributors: Anne Aiyegbusi, David Armstrong, John Gordon, Sharman Harding, R.D. Hinshelwood, Gabriel Kirtchuk, Michael Mercer, Claire Miller, Carine Minne, David Reiss, Stanley Ruszczynski, Gillian Tuck, Kiriakos Xenitidis