ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the case of a very ill young man who, in addition to the usual psychiatric treatment, was provided with long-term continuity of psychoanalytic psychotherapy during the ten years he spent moving from a high secure psychiatric setting and eventually back to the community. The provision of such long-term psychotherapy for patients suffering from serious mental disorders can be misconstrued as a luxury. The patients seen in forensic psychiatry settings often come from dysfunctional families, and many have spent time in a variety of care settings or penal and/or other psychiatric institutions. Patients treated in forensic psychiatry settings are invariably people who suffer from severe mental disorders and have seriously offended. Probably the most important aspect the long-term continuity of treatment provided this patient was a constant reliable object who remained available throughout this enforced treatment period, which arose only because of the catastrophe that had occurred.
