ABSTRACT
A psychoanalytic approach adds to actuarial approaches to risk by considering unconscious drivers for actions, the link between childhood and adult experience, the specific meaning of actions and events to an individual, and the role of emotion (or ‘affect’).
While people who commit criminal acts are sometimes seen to lack a strong conscience, often they have a highly persecutory superego telling them they are worthless or rubbish, and their actions may be a response to this.
Where an individual’s experience of the world is polarised into good and bad experiences, the ‘bad’ states of mind may be experienced as very persecutory and destabilising.
‘Ego strength’ describes how well a person manages to balance competing feelings, wishes and demands.
‘Mentalisation’ describes our capacity to think about our own and others’ thoughts, feelings and perspectives.
Feelings that cannot be contained or mentalised are often discharged through action.
Anxiety is a universal phenomenon and we all develop defence mechanisms to protect ourselves from anxiety, particularly the anxieties stirred up by our relationships with others.
