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In the first of four Reith Lectures, forensic psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead asks if violence is normal. Do we think that because, deep down, we all have a capacity for cruelty?

In her 2024 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鈥� experience as a forensic Psychiatrist working inside institutions such as Broadmoor, she asks if violence is normal.

Is violence unnatural? Or is it 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?

The programme was recorded at Broadcasting House in London in front of an audience and is presented and chaired by Anita Anand.

Producer; Jim Frank
Editor: Clare Fordham

Available now

58 minutes

On radio

Next Monday 12:04
大象传媒 Radio 4

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Aren't they all evil?Gwen Adshead - Four Questions about Violence

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Broadcasts

  • Tue 26 Nov 2024 09:00
    大象传媒 Radio 4
  • Next Monday 12:04
    大象传媒 Radio 4

New to the Reith Lectures? Here鈥檚 where to start

Four lectures recommended by the series producer.

Podcast

  • The Reith Lectures

    Significant international thinkers deliver the 大象传媒's flagship annual lecture series