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Is Violence Normal?

British forensic psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead asks if violence is normal?

In her 2024 Â鶹Éç 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.

Or is violence unnatural? 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?

Release date:

50 minutes

On radio

Sat 30 Nov 2024 19:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 30 Nov 2024 19:06GMT
  • Sun 1 Dec 2024 09:06GMT
  • Sun 1 Dec 2024 12:06GMT

The Reith Lectures on Radio 4

Archive recordings from the Â鶹Éç's flagship annual lecture series going back to 1948