Conflicts, Hate and Violence in Psychotherapy - Volume II

Building on the first volume, this second volume on 'Conflicts, Hate and Violence in Psychotherapy' serves to expand on this research field.

The field of psychotherapy is increasingly challenged by the complex manifestations of conflict, aggression, and hate within the therapeutic relationship. Societal polarization, collective violence, and historical traumas shape the lived experiences of both patients and clinicians, entering the consulting room as potent relational forces. New clinical research implicates not only individual psychopathology but also systemic injustices, cultural ruptures, and the transmission of violence across generations. Recent studies highlight the role of patient aggression, therapist vulnerabilities, and the enactment of broader social tensions within therapy, however further research is needed on the most effective ways to respond to and transform these destructive dynamics. Further exploration is needed on empirical evidence on therapist processes, including their own countertransference aggression and the reparative mechanisms that enable healing after relational ruptures driven by hate or violence.

This Research Topic aims to expand understanding of how clinicians and patients navigate and transform destructive relational patterns, focusing on the capacity for containment, repair, and integration within the psychotherapeutic encounter. This can include the processes by which therapists develop the tolerance and reflective skills necessary to remain authentically engaged with hate, aggression, and violence, rather than retaliating, withdrawing, or prematurely interpreting. The goal is to examine the varied ways in which therapeutic failures are metabolized into opportunities for growth, and to distinguish the conditions underpinning superficial reconciliation from those offering genuine transformation. By investigating developmental and systemic influences, therapeutic modalities, and the intersection of individual and collective violence, this Research Topic sets out to clarify the pathways by which the consulting room can serve as a microcosm for larger social healing.

While the focus is on psychotherapeutic work with aggression and violence, the scope includes a broad range of perspectives and settings, while excluding purely theoretical or speculative accounts without a clinical or empirical foundation. The collection welcomes articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• The therapist’s experience and management of countertransference aggression and hate
• Vicarious traumatization, burnout, and resilience in clinicians working with violent or hateful patients
• Training, supervision, and reflective practices fostering clinician capacity for repair and containment
• Developmental origins of aggression and mentalizing-focused interventions for reflective functioning deficits
• Comparative and integrative studies of therapeutic modalities addressing conflict, hate, and violence
• Treatment of perpetrators of violence and the ethics of working with those posing ongoing risk
• Deradicalization and the psychological dynamics of extremist ideologies in therapy
• The role of embodiment and somatic intervention in transforming violent enactments
• Repair and reconciliation processes following ruptures in the therapeutic alliance
• Intergenerational transmission of trauma and collective violence as it manifests in therapy
• Long-term outcomes and the generalization of conflict management to the wider relational lives of patients

Articles may include empirical studies, clinical case reports, conceptual analyses, reviews, and methodological innovations, provided they are clearly linked to the described scope and advance understanding relevant to clinical practice.