Psychodynamics, Dr Perinpanayagam tells us, is '.a simple, common-sense treatment of the youngsters which depends on discussion with them and trying to understand their overt conscious expressions, as well as identifying covert communications. It is treatment that tries to understand and deal with the cause of a problem.' But will psychodynamics work when you're faced with an oversized teenager threatening violence, or a young girl who demands to be raped? Dr Perinpanayagam's experience as the Medical Director of a regional residential unit for disturbed adolescents, confirms the validity of...

Dr K Sounthy Perinpanayagam, known as Dr Perin to patients and colleagues in England, grew up in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) when it was a colony of Great Britain and during its transition to an independent democratic state in the commonwealth.

He qualified as a doctor in 1960 at the Colombo Medical School. Having trained in and practised general medicine, paediatrics, surgery and obstetrics and gynaecology for four years, he entered the field of psychiatry at the mental hospital, Angoda, Ceylon, where he saw and practised the early forms of treatment - insulin treatment, ECT and drug treatment with...