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The Reith Lectures

Aren't they all evil?

The Reith Lectures

BBC

Society & Culture, Science, Government, Technology

4.2770 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In her second Reith Lecture, Dr Gwen Adshead asks if there’s such a thing as “evil.”? In a career spanning nearly 40 years the forensic psychiatrist has heard many of her patients ask: “ I have done evil things but does that make me evil.”? Dr Adshead says that we have often confused “evil” with mental illness. She argues that we all have capacity for “evil” and says we need to find ways to cultivate societal and individual “goodness.” The programme is recorded at the V&A in Dundee in front of an audience. The Reith Lectures are presented and chaired by Anita Anand. Producer: Jim Frank Editor: Clare Fordham

Transcript

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0:00.0

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helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put

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0:47.6

Hello, I'm Dr Gwen Ad's Head and in my BBC Radio 4 wreath lectures, I'll be considering the four questions about violence that I've most been asked about in my 30-year career

0:52.6

as a forensic psychiatrist. In this second

0:55.5

lecture, I'm asking, but aren't they all evil? Welcome to the second of this year's

1:02.0

Reith lectures with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gwen Adzhead and her series about how we might

1:07.7

better understand and manage violence. Today we're in Scotland at the

1:12.0

V&A Museum in Dundee. Designed by Kengo, Kuma, this building is a striking architectural

1:17.9

addition to the banks of the River Tay and is an important part of this city's regeneration story.

1:24.7

Scotland has jurisdiction over crime and punishment. So how much difference has this made

1:30.0

when it comes to managing the type of violence which destroys not just individual lives,

1:35.0

but the hope of generations and society at large? It's a highly sensitive and difficult subject,

1:41.5

but one which our lecturer will address in this series entitled

1:45.3

Four Questions About Violence. She has spent a lifetime working inside prisons, talking to some of

1:52.8

those who've committed terrible acts of violence, including, but not exclusively, murder.

1:59.4

And one of the most common questions that she is asked is,

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