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At a time when the polarities of victim and aggressor, good folks and bad folks, and guilty and innocent seem to be the only available categories with which to classify human action, it is perhaps all the more urgent to find alternative ways of thinking about questions of agency, motivation and classification. In her long and remarkable career, Estela Welldon has done precisely this, challenging received opinions about trauma, abuse, perversion, criminality and motherhood, and encouraging us to reflect on what drives people to behaviour that we can all too easily dismiss, condemn and vilify.
This new collection of essays celebrates her work, and shows the many ways in which she has transformed the field not only of forensic psychotherapy but of related areas of analytic thought and practice. In this, Welldon continues the tradition of Freud, who urged caution in our kneejerk reactions to violence and crime, and a proper exploration of the meaning and the function of the so-called criminal act. Just as Freud revealed how violence may be linked to an underlying guilt, Welldon has focused on the early history of the individuals involved, and how their actions may be seen not only as aspects of the compulsion to repeat but as efforts to heal themselves and distance the malign forces they experience internally.
Welldon's work here and her celebrated vitality and passion for transmitting her ideas have led to the creation of the first formal training in forensic psychotherapy at the Portman Clinic, as well as the foundation of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy. This has not been simply a grouping of those interested in psychotherapeutic approaches to forensics, but also a battle against the societal and institutional forces which favour punishment to understanding. Even analytically oriented practitioners were often hostile to her approach, which saw her insisting that therapy groups include both perpetrators and victims, resisting exactly the polariz