Guest Editorial

It is a genuine pleasure and a privilege to introduce this special forensic issue of the journal which gives a snapshot of some of the child and adolescent work currently being undertaken in the Portman Clinic.

We begin with two shorter introductory pieces. Stan Ruszczynski, who has just stepped down from his role as clinic director after 12 years, provides a very helpful overview of the history of the Portman as a centre of excellence in delivering psychotherapy to patients struggling with violence, perversions, paraphilias, delinquency, serious sexual enactments and, increasingly, worrying and illegal use of screen-based technology such as child pornography. He reminds the reader of the illustrious traditions of the clinic and its sparkling intellectual and therapeutic legacy, all soundly rooted in psychoanalytic thinking. Patricia Allan then takes over the mantle offering an insightful explanation of what the current child psychotherapy team actually does ‘on the ground’ and how the work is approached. She takes the reader steadily and clearly through some of the most notable clinical challenges of this work. Allan emphasises the complications of working with both victim and perpetrator in the same person (a theme illustrated starkly in the paper by John Woods on ‘The making of an abuser’, see below) and the taxing kinds of transference and countertransference issues that inevitably arise in such work. The importance of working closely with professional networks is highlighted, especially with regard to risk, both to the self and to others, an aspect which is always central to our thinking and practice.

Ariel Nathanson’s paper reads as an instant classic. Drawing on many years of experience and a deep understanding of the legacy of the Portman’s distinct brand of psychoanalytic thinking, he theorises about work with young people who act out in perverse and addictive ways. His examples graphically depict how many of our patients seek a particular form of triumphant