ABSTRACT
Most patients in Broadmoor Hospital are legally detained "without limit of time", so that the phrase "being inside enough" could carry an ironic connotation. It can also refer to the depths of the personality reached during prolonged forensic psychotherapy. This chapter explores the relevance of some aspects of these "powerful metaphors" that are of such direct impact within the broad sweep of forensic psychotherapy itself, though there is an added cachet about their more focused significance when viewed from the particular vantage point of psychotherapy undertaken in a secure setting. One of the goals of forensic psychotherapy is the establishment of contact with empathy-resistant patients, who usually present as narcissistic personality disorders or as fragile disintegrating psychotics. Donald Woods Winnicott has given a priceless lead to sombre forensic issues when the ideational and affective homologue—via the aesthetic imperative—can lead to the safe understanding of the inner world of even the most disturbed offender-patient.
