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Life within Hidden Worlds: Psychotherapy in Prisons

Editor : Jessica Williams Saunders

Reviews and Endorsements

'Psychoanalytic psychotherapy as a practice is the antithesis of a prison regime. Prisons are hard; psychotherapy is porous, permeable. Echoed throughout this book is the obvious paradox that is being worked when practicing psychotherapy in a prison. The two are worlds apart, yet each can creatively serve the other. What I hope will be apparent is a view that occurs in all the writing: that people who commit crimes against another person are human, not animals, albeit with the capacity to carry out deeply disturbing, dark acts.'
- Jessica Williams Saunders, Editor, from her Introduction.

'Prisons are not ideal environments in which to practice psychotherapy, but they are places in which it is needed urgently. Unfortunately, too many people do not understand either the need, or what therapy can offer, and ignorance is a powerful enemy of practice.

'The Prison Service has the difficult task of attempting to ensure that all needs can be catered for. Its most intractable problem is with those at the extreme end of the difficult, dangerous and disruptive spectrum, whose treatment cannot solely be a matter of control. These are the prisoners whose treatment and needs are described in this book.

‘Psychotherapy should not be seen as antithetical to the ethos of a prison…it is important that prison staff should understand therapists, and vice versa. The value of Life Within Hidden Worlds is that it helps to fill the gap by explaining, simply yet graphically, the challenges that face therapists. I therefore recommend it strongly.'
- Sir David Ramsbotham, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, from his Foreword