Editorial

We are delighted to welcome you, our readers, to the 2024 IAFP conference issue of our journal. In it, you will find articles focused on the theme of this year's conference, which was The Perverse Organisation: Turning a Blind Eye to Sexual Violence. The conference was held in the beautiful city of Montpellier, a magnificent backdrop to counteract the disturbed aspects of human behaviours presented. A summary of the conference is available in this issue.

Since the previous journal issue, in the last six months the world has continued witnessing a troubling ongoing surge in violent eruptions. The geopolitical tensions in places such as the Middle East and Eastern Europe serve as human-made eruptions, reflecting deep-seated anger, fear, and frustration that have been building for years, even decades. These explosive events, caused by human conflict, could be said to echo the internal turmoil many individuals experience—an overwhelming sense of powerlessness followed by bursts of uncontrollable energy. In therapy, we often explore how these moments of eruption are often signals of deeper unresolved trauma and conflict. The global stage, much like the human psyche, shows us that when emotional pressure is left unaddressed, it can inevitably lead to sudden, violent outbursts, requiring collective efforts for both reflection and resolution. In the awful realm of sexual offending there are regular media reports of public figures in positions of power exploiting their positions and offending. At the time of writing, in the UK, the Archbishop of Canterbury has recently had to resign because of not having proactively prevented a known offender from continuing to offend. Even this Archbishop's planned successor, a Bishop, has just been reported as having knowingly allowed another sex offender to continue to work in the Church, leaving more children at risk. We are also all aware of how sexual offending erupts during times of war, in parallel with the other awful violence of war