| Abstract: | Selected prisoners, most of them with severe character disorders, are permitted to serve the remaining portion of their sentence on parole in the community on condition that they be patients in psychotherapy at a psychiatric clinic created in 1953 for this purpose. Nearly all the patients begin without personal motivation for such treatment. Attendance has been attained because parole officers are assigned to the task of enforcing attendance. Coercion can bring these reluctant patients to expose themselves to treatment, but staff members then have the task to overcome hostility, combat extensive rationalizations, and transform an initially poor rapport into patient participation in working through major personality change. This clinic provides an interesting laboratory for the development of a psychiatric treatment program for adults who have not responded well to a great variety of forms of correctional care. |
