Does Trauma Cause Violence?

The Reith Lectures

BBC

Society & Culture, Science, Government, Technology

4.2 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How best do we understand how to manage powerful emotions such as rage, fear and shame? With very rare access, Forensic Psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead gives her third Reith Lecture inside HMP Grendon, where she talks to prisoners and staff, and asks the question: “Does trauma cause violence?”

Does being a victim of violence in some circumstances make you more likely to become a perpetrator of violence? Was WH Auden right when he wrote in 1939 ‘Those to whom evil is done do evil in return’?

The Reith Lectures are presented and chaired by Anita Anand.

Producer: Jim Frank

Editor: Clare Fordham

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.8	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.5	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put
0:28.3	together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:35.0	check out BBC Sounds.
0:41.2	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:47.9	Hello, I'm Dr. Gwen Ad'shead, and in my BBC Radio 4 Reith lectures, I'll be considering the four questions about violence that I've most been asked about in my 30-year career
0:52.9	as a forensic psychiatrist.
0:59.8	In this third lecture, I'm asking, does childhood trauma lead to violence?
1:07.4	Hello and welcome to the Reith Lectures with the forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Gwen Ad's Head.
1:13.5	In this series, Gwen has been exploring the origins of violence, asking how we can better manage something that devastates lives and is so very costly to society. She's been
1:19.6	exploring the importance of understanding the perpetrators of violence. So to that end,
1:25.2	for this third lecture, we have come to a prison. This is the first time
1:29.5	one of the wreath lectures has been recorded inside a prison. And let me tell you where we're
1:34.5	sitting right now. This is a meeting hall within the prison walls, and it has a feel, apart from
1:40.7	the bars at the window, a village hall, ostensibly. I can see on my right,
1:44.8	there are pictures which are done by the people who live here on the left. There are pleasant,
1:49.2	calming pictures of trees and a forest. There is security, of course, to get into a place like this.
1:54.9	We had to give in our phones and our smart watches. When we came in, we were escorted everywhere
2:00.3	we went. Now, this is not,
	...

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