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Does trauma cause violence?

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead explores the idea that victims of violence are more likely to become perpetrators of violence.

How 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 second Reith Lecture inside Grendon prison, in England, where she talks to a small number of 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?

3 days left to listen

50 minutes

Last on

Sunday 12:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Saturday 19:06GMT
  • Sunday 09:06GMT
  • Sunday 12:06GMT

The Reith Lectures on Radio 4

Archive recordings from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's flagship annual lecture series going back to 1948