ABSTRACT
In this penultimate chapter I have two purposes: first, to suggest ways in which we may enhance our understanding of the difficult and demanding people described in earlier chapters; second, to outline the basic content of short workshops that have proved useful to a variety of penal and other professionals over the past fifteen years. In outlining these, I must pay tribute here to the large number of participants and co-workers who have assisted me and advanced my own (often faltering) understanding of this difficult field. Such understanding will obviously be enhanced by careful reading of the 'technical' literature, by discussion with colleagues, from supervision by senior staff and, of course, by the lessons learnt from our clients and patients over the years. It will have become obvious to my readers that a number of disciplines make up the 'technical' literature, and one requires more than a nodding acquaintance with the subject matter of psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, history, forensic science and the law. However, it is my strong belief that these excellent sources can be supplemented usefully by a study of literature, metaphor, myth and legend and it is these sources (notably literature) that form the substance of the first part of this chapter.! A famous American judge - Judge Learned Hand - once said:
I venture to believe that it is as important to a judge called upon to pass [a view] on a question of constitutional law , to have a bowing acquaintance with Thucydides, Gibbon and Carlyle, with Homer, Dante, Shakespeare and Milton, with Machiavelli, Montaigne and Rabelais, with Plato, Bacon, Hume and Kant as with books that have been written specifically on the subject.
