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‘Forensic psychoanalysis’ is the latest addition to a long list of hugely engaging books by Professor Brett Kahr, a prominent academic historian and psychoanalyst. Each chapter weaves a rich tapestry of thinking about criminality with exceptional attention to detail, in-depth clinical and academic insights and evidenced knowledge of the history of violence and its roots in traumatic childhoods. Kahr continues to build on his previous work on forensic psychotherapy and to develop his own concepts and ideas such as the ‘infanticidal attachment’ (Kahr, 2007), ‘psychological infanticide’ (Kahr, 1993), forensic psychotherapy as a ‘psychological vaccine’ (Kahr, 2018a) and the ‘sub-clinical forensic perpetrator’ (Kahr, 2018b).
This book makes a significant contribution to forensic psychoanalysis. It delivers a systematic and comprehensive review of the history of forensic psychoanalysis and includes extensive historical research that traces the treatment of forensic patients across time (from the Babylonians to current times) and the application of psychoanalytic thinking to this specialist field, from Sigmund Freud to Estella Welldon and many other contemporary psychoanalysts. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is the careful gathering of information and views from multiple sources and professionals, such as neuroscientists, psychiatrists, researchers, physicians and those involved with the application of the law.
Kahr is a prolific writer with an impressive record of books and articles to his name and an enviable capacity to draw his audience into complex and challenging subjects with ease and curiosity. His clinical vignettes are poignant and captivating. For those working with severely disturbed and disturbing children, adolescents and adults with a forensic presentation, his personal accounts of those moments of dread in the countertransference feel easy to identify with. The way he introduces and weaves his own thoughts and ideas into both the academic an