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In mid-May 2022, IAFP members, new and old, and guests, finally met in person in the majestic building of British Medical Association House in central London for this special anniversary conference. Many more registrants were able to join us virtually, us all becoming versatile with technology probably being the only positive to have emerged from the ghastly pandemic.
Professors Kahr and Keogh opened the conference with whirlwind plenaries covering recorded incidents of sadistic treatments of criminals across the ages until Freud's revelations of the unconscious started a shift to more humane approaches and how psychoanalytically based treatments remain under-represented.
Dr Lemlij gave a moving account of politics and violence in his home country, Peru, including close personal accounts of being affected by terrorism and this never deterring him from his exquisite ongoing work with victims and perpetrators. Professor Gilligan starkly pointed out how suicidal behaviour was included in diagnostic manuals but not homicidal behaviour and how crucial it is for forensic psychotherapy to transcend moral condemnations and punishment as the response to violent behaviour for everyone to benefit, criminals and society.
Drs Doctor and Minne's focus was clinical, with case presentations. Rosca, an expert by lived experience, presented a moving narrative of his life trajectory from growing up in a war-torn country, witnessing atrocities perpetrated against family and friends, ending up as an unaccompanied child in a refugee camp, finally arriving in the UK severely traumatised. He was also lost, vulnerable, and therefore easily groomed by older gang members, witnessing and now perpetrating more violence and ending up serving a long sentence. Thankfully, he was eventually transferred to a prison run with a therapeutic community approach and group therapy treatments. He was able to describe how therapy helped him and that he is now in the community working as well as contributing to