Psychoanalysis of older offenders.

Psychotherapy

April 2021

Full Citation

Healy, W. (1934). Psychoanalysis of older offenders. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 4(1), 24-30. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1934.tb06273.x

Abstract

This article discusses the psychoanalytic outcomes in older offenders. The best indication of some of the values that might accrue from analyzing older offenders is to be obtained by reviewing a case. In connection with the penological process there must be some sort of hospitalization provision for special psychiatric treatment of certain cases. The patient was the most promising individuals for psychoanalytic treatment that one could possibly find. He had developed criminalistic stereotyped habits, with every suggestion that they were a result of unconscious motivation. And yet it has steadily been impossible to get hold of him for the one type of treatment that might possibly make him a less costly member of society. There seems to be a great deal of difference between the attitudes of individuals of that age and the older ones who have more willingness and desire to gain insight into their own problems. The economic situation in recent years has made it particularly difficult for ex-prisoners to obtain an honest living. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)