Is violence normal?
British forensic psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead asks if violence is normal?
In her 2024 成人快手 Reith Lectures, Dr Gwen Adshead, addresses four questions that she has most commonly faced in her work as a therapist with violent perpetrators in secure psychiatric units and prisons: Is violence normal? What is the relationship between trauma and violence? Is there such a thing as evil? Can we change violent minds?
In this first lecture, using data and real-life stories from nearly 40 years experience as a forensic psychiatrist, she asks if violence is normal. Do we think about it as being normal because, deep down, we are all capable of cruelty and can experience, even briefly, the urge to hurt others? What then are the tipping points, what are the factors that drive some to kill?
(Photo: Dr Gwen Adshead. Credit: Andy Vox)
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The Reith Lectures on Radio 4
Archive recordings from the 成人快手's flagship annual lecture series going back to 1948