Therapeutic Assessment of a Violent Criminal Offender: Managing the Cultural Narrative of Evil

ABSTRACT

Therapeutic Assessment (TA) emphasizes the importance of the clinical relationship and the core values of collaboration, respect, humility, compassion, and curiosity, which guide all aspects of the endeavor (Finn, 2007). Those values are not easy to apply with violent offenders. However, this article explains how TA can significantly contribute to the treatment of those clients by helping the therapist avoid common cultural narratives about evil. We see that these culturally based myths permit us to explain violent behaviors, but also prevent us from treating them because they lead us to a circular countertransference–transference process. Through a clinical case, I show how the TA process can help us to work empathically with violent people while addressing the dangerousness effectively.

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented in a symposium at the 2015 Society of Personality Assessment Annual Convention, Brooklyn, NY.

I thank all the faculty of the Therapeutic Assessment Institute for the support and stimulation they gave me, especially Stephen Finn for much more than I can possibly say here; J. D. Smith, F. Aschieri, and M. Frackowiak for their valuable comments; and the reviewers for their helpful comments.