ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the utility of Mentalization based therapy (MBT) as a short term intervention with juvenile sex offenders and for psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic psychotherapy, as intensive treatments, particularly where an equation involving suitability for treatment, risk of reoffending, and costs associated with reoffending suggest a cost benefit for intensive treatment. The neurobiology underpinning this development is particularly relevant, as it was originally thought that this was fixed in the early stages of infancy. Among juvenile sex offenders there is evidence of differential solutions to various developmental disruptions. The attachment hunger group is a more ready group for MBT, due to the fact that those in this group have an accessible attachment system that can be more readily activated. The key problem with the attachment hungry group lies more in the interplay with the hyper activation of their attachment system in conjunction with their problems in being able to read the mental states of (victims) others.
