September 6, 2024 — This year’s BBC Radio 4 Reith lecturer has been announced as Dr Gwen Adshead. Titled Four Questions about Violence, her lectures will address the most pertinent questions that Dr Adshead has faced in her work as a forensic psychiatrist.

• Is violence normal?

• What is the relationship between trauma and violence?

• Is there such a thing as evil?

• Can we change violent minds?

At a time of growing concerns surrounding the prevalence of violent behaviour both online and offline, these four lectures will consider the motivations, actions and rehabilitation of those who commit violent acts.

Drawing on her extensive professional experience as a leading forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Dr Adshead will explore these questions from a clinical perspective, informed by thinking about the developmental and social roots of violence. Dr Adshead’s work has led her to study how people develop social minds; how trauma affects the development of the mind and capacity to be pro-social and how best to help offenders rehabilitate.

The 2024 lectures will be recorded in front of live audiences in London, Dundee, Bergen and HMP Grendon, marking the first time a Reith lecture has been recorded in a prison. They will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service later this year and will be available to listen to on BBC Sounds.

Dr Gwen Adshead says “It’s an extraordinary privilege to be asked to give the 2024 Reith Lectures. Human violence of all kinds is a matter of national and international concern, and violence reduction is rightly seen as a priority. Now is a good time to rethink how we conceptualise violence as complex human activity; and to do that we need multiple perspectives to address it. In these lectures I will explore violence from the perspective of the individual violence perpetrator; their state of mind, their risk to others and their need for mental health care. I speak from my 30 years of working as a therapist in prisons and secure mental health care, and also as a teacher on ethics in mental health.”

Mohit Bakaya, Director of Speech and Controller of BBC Radio 4 and 4 Extra, says “Our news media, as well as our cultural landscape, is filled with stories of acts of violence. The impact of violence on the individual, families and communities can be devastating, but we can also be fascinated by the psychology of the perpetrator. How we regard violence, its impact on society and what we do about violent behaviour are complex, but urgent questions. Therefore, I’m pleased that the brilliant forensic psychiatrist, Dr Gwen Adshead, has agreed to be this year’s Reith lecturer. Dr Adshead is perfectly placed to consider these important questions and share insights, stories and experience from across her impressive career to help us all have a wide ranging and thoughtful conversation about what we do about violence in society today.”

Dr Gwen Adshead trained at St Bartholomew’s hospital, St George’s hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry and in 2024, she was named as one of five Honorary Fellows of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Dr Adshead currently works part-time in the NHS, as a consultant in a high secure hospital and in a women’s prison. With Eileen Horne, she wrote a book for general readership about her work as a therapist with violence perpetrators called ‘The Devil You Know’.

The lectures and question-and-answer sessions will be chaired by presenter, journalist and author Anita Anand.

Audiences can apply for free tickets to the recordings from Friday 20 September, via the BBC website.

About The Reith Lectures

The Reith Lectures were inaugurated in 1948 by the BBC to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Sir John (later Lord) Reith, the corporation’s first director-general.

John Reith maintained that broadcasting should be a public service which enriches the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver a series of lectures on radio. The aim is to advance public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest.

The very first Reith lecturer was the philosopher, Bertrand Russell who spoke on ‘Authority and the Individual’. Among his successors were Robert Oppenheimer (Science and the Common Understanding, 1953) and J.K. Galbraith (The New Industrial State, 1966). The Reith Lectures have also been delivered by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks (The Persistence of Faith, 1990), Onora O’Neill (A Question of Trust, 2002), Daniel Barenboim (In The Beginning Was Sound, 2006) and Michael Sandel (A New Citizenship, 2009). Most recently the Reith Lecturers have been Stephen Hawking (Black Holes, 2016), Kwame Anthony Appiah (Mistaken Identities, 2016), Hilary Mantel (Resurrection: The Art And Craft, 2017), Margaret MacMillan (The Mark of Cain, 2018), Jonathan Sumption (Law and the Decline of Politics, 2019), Mark Carney (How We Get What We Value 2020) and Stuart Russell (Living With Artificial Intelligence 2021).

About Dr Gwen Adshead

Dr Gwen Adshead is a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She trained at St Bartholomew’s hospital, St George’s hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry. In addition to her medical degree and her qualifications as a psychiatrist, she holds a Master’s Degree in Medical Law and Ethics, a Master of Science Degree in Mindfulness based Cognitive Therapy from Oxford University and she is a Qualified member of the Institute of Group Analysis. She was Yochelson visiting fellow at Yale School of Law & Psychiatry in 2013, professor of psychiatry at Gresham College between 2014 and 2016 and has been awarded two honorary doctorates by St George’s Hospital medical school in 2016 and 2024. In 2013 the Royal College of Psychiatrists awarded her the President’s Medal for her work in mental health ethics and in 2024, she was named as one of five Honorary Fellows of the Royal College of psychiatrist.

Dr Adshead is the co-editor and co-author of the Oxford Handbook of Forensic Psychiatry (now in its 2nd edition), the Oxford casebook of Ethics in Forensic Psychiatry and the Oxford Handbook of Medical psychotherapy. She co-authored work on the ethics of research in forensic psychiatry and the treatment of personality disorders. She has published over 150 papers in peer review journals or as book chapters. She has chaired the Royal College of Psychiatrists Ethics Committee, and is a member of an expert reference group on parental child abuse. She is also a specialist in work with people who abuse their children; and has been a member of two related national working parties.

Dr Adshead currently works part-time in the NHS, as a consultant in a high secure hospital and in a women’s prison. With Eileen Horne, she wrote a book for general readership about her work as a therapist with violence perpetrators called ‘The Devil You Know’. It was published by Faber in 2021 and was Waterstones’ non-fiction book of the month in July 2022. Gwen and Eileen are now working on a book about trauma and recovery from trauma.

The Reith Archive is available here.