Editorial

Abstract

In part 2 of this special issue we continue our series of papers from the celebration events for the centenary of the Tavistock Clinic. Exploring the theme of inequalities, the first paper in this issue is entitled ‘Pandemic: challenges in care and recovery’ by Dinesh Sinha. It has long been known that economic disadvantage is linked to higher rates of mortality and poorer access to healthcare (Black, 1982). More recent evidence has suggested that industrialised societies with the greatest income differentials (such as the UK and USA) have the poorest health and social development (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009). The COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed the Tavistock centenary celebrations, has highlighted once again the inequalities in health within our society. Using the lens of everyday sadism, Sinha identifies corrosive and deliberate counter narratives to the themes of care and courage in this period. He describes how the pre-existing silos of separation between the privileged and dispossessed have prevented survival and wellbeing in the wider society. He cautions health and social care workers about the possible lapse into masochism and bravery as defences against exhaustion and the guilt of having survived when thousands of our colleagues have not. He highlights the need for awareness of our own feelings of guilt and aggression, so that they do not vitiate our capacity to care. Sinha suggests that the process of recovering from the pandemic is not just about the restoration of physical wellbeing but also the creation of healthier conditions in society that actively mitigate the scourge of everyday sadism. The next paper, ‘Under fire in the consulting room’ by Carine Minne, describes her work with patients at the Portman Clinic. The clinic traces its history back to 1933, when the ‘Psychopathic Clinic’ was founded by Edward Glover at the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases. It was established as the clinical arm of the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency (ISTD), earlier founded in 1931 as the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency. The Institute had been inspired by the work of Dr. Grace Pailthorpe, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, who worked in Birmingham and Holloway Prisons. There, she became interested in the personality of women prisoners and in 1932 published Studies in the Psychology of Delinquency. In her article Minne uses clinical vignettes with patients such as a woman who was convicted of infanticide. She illustrates situations when the therapist realised there was a sudden unexpected rise in the ‘temperature’ of a patient’s mind. She likens this to the ignition of a fuse and discusses why this may have Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 2022 Vol. 36, No. 1, 1–3, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02668734.2022.2049064