Gwen Adshead > Quotes

“If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“It was also crucial for me to talk with Zara about how frightening it is for any child to be neglected or treaded with hostility by a parent. Even if they never lay a finger on them. Angry parents generate fear in their children. And over a long period, chronic fear can impair a child’s self esteem, their sense of value and their ability to regulate their moods.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion

“fear and trauma have to be transformed, or they will stay in the mind like an unsheathed knife, a real and deadly blade moving in unreal time, transmitting pain to others.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“most violence in”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“metaphor of the dark lamp (as I mentioned in the Introduction) and paid such exquisite attention to language. He described how a patient moves from ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ to ‘It wasn’t me’ to ‘It was me, but I was mentally ill at the time’ to ‘I did it when I was mentally ill,’ until they finally land on ‘I did it.’ Cox called this coming to terms”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“revenge is a basic human impulse, a kind of wild justice that keeps us stuck in our fear and anger, mirroring the very cruelty we claim to abhor. This can be painful; there is wisdom in that popular notion that hating someone else is like taking poison and waiting for them to die. And, as Gandhi and others have observed, it is a measure of a just society that we treat the worst of us with compassion.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion

“Any difference in our sympathy towards her suggests that we have a gendered view of evil. Whereby men’s violence is seen as essentially different to women’s. Which profits no one. If anything, it bolsters the punisher’s concept that it is somehow normal for men to be destructive and violent and that victim hood is part of the essential identity of a woman.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion

“Richard Rohr, “If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.” 2”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“Deceit is a hallmark of psychopathy, which is a severe disorder of the personality that I knew was associated with serial killers.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“Chapter by chapter, as the light grows stronger, I hope the reader will be able to visualize new possibilities for acceptance and change.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion

“the US is at the head of the pack by a considerable margin, claiming nearly 70 percent of all known serial killers in the world,”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“this elsewhere by people far more expert than me; I will just say that we imprison far too many people, essentially to feed the public appetite for punishment, when only a small percentage of them are too cruel or risky to rehabilitate in the community.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“It [evil] is really a term, much like beauty, which says more about the viewer than the object.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion

“Psychiatrists are doctors who look after the only part of the body that votes.”)”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“I reflected that as a child, each time she thought she’d found a safe harbour, it turned out to be full of danger. And so she would destroy or disrupt her ability to settle in one place.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion

“the world is committed by young, poor males.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“reading is a sign of an alert mind,”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“Only 5 percent of all homicides in the UK are committed by women, a figure that is similar around the world, as UN and other global studies consistently demonstrate.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“I actually came to work there, I quickly found otherwise. Our secure hospitals fulfill such an important and humane function, and I’m glad to say that most other developed countries have similar psychiatric facilities that either admit people from prison or offer an appropriate alternative for those who need it.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“people who have killed can make something of themselves, even if they face many years in prison, 'otherwise two lives are lost rather than one'.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion

“No, no, not you. I want to be both Charlie and Charlotte in here. Is that okay?”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion

“I fell back on my favourite question, “If this was a story, where would it start?”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion

“know the words but not the music’ of emotional encounters.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“Narcissistic personality disorder is a popular diagnosis these days, especially for men in powerful roles.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“wisdom in that popular notion that hating someone else is like taking poison and waiting for them to die.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“Gaze aversion is useful for all of us as a way to regulate intimacy,”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“In real life, people with narcissistic personalities struggle with relationships and tend to die early. Occasionally they will seek treatment, but it is rarely successful because therapy requires trust and vulnerability, and a narcissistic person uses grandiosity and entitlement to suppress feelings of need. Controlling and belittling others brings them superficial relief, even if it means alienating people who might be able to help.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“Offenders tell me that they often find it easier to work with older probation officers than younger ones, who can sometimes present as more rigid and controlling.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“I’ve been struck by the fact that it is those that have known military occupation within the last century, like Norway and Holland, that have among the most humane, progressive attitudes to the mental health treatment of violent offenders. Some studies suggest that experience makes it easier for them to understand these fellow human beings as rule-breakers who are ill rather than “bad people.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

“Social isolation is not recommended for someone who is acutely mentally ill; one judge in a recent US civil rights action described the segregation of prisoners in poor mental health as equivalent to “depriving an asthmatic of air.”
― Gwen Adshead, The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry