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Aims.This is a contribution to the debate over the 2011 English riots from a psychosocial perspective.Methods.We compare the impulsive and ‘mindless’ behaviour of rioters with the impulsive, violent and contradictory behaviour of people affected by severe personality disorders.Results.We propose that the lack of a sense of social identity and of mentalization skills is a common feature of the two conditions – the lack of social identity, leading to frustration and anger, coupled with a lack of mentalization, leading to the impulsive and violent expression. Furthermore, we highlight the confusing impact that the social marginalization and consumerism can have on young generations from lower classes in cities from the Western world.Conclusions.By building a parallel with the therapeutic intervention offered to severe personality disorders, we speculate on how the community, by modifying its communication's style and actively intervene in deprived socio-economic contexts, could inspire more confidence, trust and sense of belonging in its marginalized members.

SummaryWe describe the work of a psychodynamic psychotherapy group for individuals affected by chronic schizophrenia in our community-based rehabilitation and recovery service. Despite presenting with negative symptoms, over time patients made good use of the psychodynamic setting: they attended, expressed emotions, made connections and reflected within the group on their personal experience of mental ill health. We discuss the rationale and indications for psychodynamic psychotherapy for individuals with severe and enduring mental illnesses. We also reflect on the challenges we faced working psychodynamically with psychosis and on the necessary adaptation of the approach to work with chronic psychosis. We present vignettes from group sessions to illustrate themes that we identified in the therapy, making links with the literature. We conclude that the unstructured setting of the psychodynamic group approach can help individuals affected by most severe forms of psychosis to make sense of their experiences and use the space.Learning Objectives•Understand the rationale for psychodynamic group interventions for psychosis.•Understand what adaptations of psychodynamic approaches are necessary to work with patients with psychosis.•Change attitudes toward offering psychodynamic interventions for psychosis.

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