'We all have a capacity for cruelty': Reith Lectures explore why some people kill
In her 2024 Reith Lectures, Dr. Gwen Adshead, addresses four questions that she has most commonly faced in her 30 years of work as a therapist with violent perpetrators in secure psychiatric units and prisons. She shares her expertise in four lectures which originally aired on BBC Radio 4.
As a therapist in psychiatric prisons and hospitals, Dr. Gwen Adshead believes violent minds can change
Dr. Gwen Adshead has studied the minds of violent perpetrators for more than 30 years. She believes listening to perpetrators can help us understand what causes their behaviour in the first place, and prevent more violence in the future.
In her 2024 Reith Lectures:Four Questions About Violence, she reflects on what she has learned coming face to face with convicted killers inside prisons and psychiatric hospitals.
IDEAS features Dr. Adshead's four lectures addressing the most pertinent questions she has faced in her work as a forensic psychiatrist.
1: Is violence normal?
In this first lecture, forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead asks if violence is a normal part of human life — whether we are all capable and tempted by violence — or whether it is an aberration or flaw in just some people. What then are the tipping points, what are the factors that drive some to kill?
2: Is there such a thing as evil?
In a career spanning over 30 years, Dr. Adshead has heard many of her patients ask: "I have done evil things, but does that mean I am evil? In her second BBC Reith Lecture, Adshead asks if there is such a thing as evil. She argues we all have capacity for 'evil' and says we need to find ways to cultivate societal and individual 'goodness.'
3: Does trauma cause violence?
How do we understand how to manage powerful emotions such as rage, fear and shame? With very rare access, forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead gives her third Reith Lecture inside Grendon prison, in England, where she talks to a small number of prisoners and staff, and asks the question: Does trauma cause violence? Does being a victim of violence, in some circumstances, make you more likely to become a perpetrator of violence?
4: Can we change violent minds?
In her final 2024 BBC Reith Lecture, forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead assesses how we deal with violent offenders, and assesses the effectiveness and impact of therapeutic interventions with offenders in prisons.
*The Reith Lectures originally aired on BBC Radio 4.
