Enjoyable, revealing, insightful

-There’s no such thing as a bad seed, just bad soil. -

This is a concept that will stick with me after reading this book.

It’s an interesting and insightful read, and certainly helps to give a different perspective on the “monsters” who commit violent crime. Looking behind the newspaper headlines and into the psyche of those imprisoned in secure hospitals, to see the person rather than the perpetrator.

I found the narration far too slow, so played it at 1.3x otherwise I think I’d have given up before the end of the first chapter, but I did enjoy that it was narrated by Dr Adshead herself, as the inflections and intonations were genuine and natural.

I work in mental health, so maybe I had a ‘special interest’ here. I don’t think that needs to be a prerequisite to enjoy the book though; anyone with an interest in others, in human behaviour, will find enjoyment in this book and hopefully will take a moment to pause the next time the tabloids blaze another family’s misfortune in sensationalised block print on their front page.

There is more than one victim in most crimes, and I think this book helps to demonstrate that the victims are not always just who you think.

And the perpetrators are people too.

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9 people found this helpful

Absolutely brilliant

A very caring lady who’s wrote a truthful account of her career - her voice is so soothing which makes the book even more interesting to listen to - Gwen Adshed you are brilliant x x x

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Very good insight into mental illness

this audiobook really brings what ordinarily seems the far off issues of mental illness into understanding for the untrained listener like myself.

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A beautiful book

These chapters are so insightful and thought-provoking. Thank you, Dr Adshead! Drawing from so many wells and teaching so much about the human mind and a sorely needed reminder that we all have a shared humanity.

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Wow! A huge lesson in compassion. Loved it!

I listened to this twice. Each time I heard something different. What a fabulous read. It really changed my thinking.

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Held my interest

A very thought provoking insight into why humans become traumatised and how understanding the trauma helps.

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Recommended

This book was well written and thought provoking. I only wish there would have been more chapters.

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Gripping, challenging and thought provoking

Difficult subject yet positive and inspiring. Thoroughly recommended. Remarkable, beautifully told, sensitive and compassionate.

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Fascinating and thoughtful

This was beautifully read by the author. Some of the details were disturbing but it was handled really carefully and left me feeling I understood mental illness a little better afterwards.

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thinking is hard which is why we judge instead

Carl Jung once said that “thinking is hard which is why we judge instead”. This book, ‘the Devil you know: stories of human cruelty and compassion’, will help you think more about people who have done horrific things and hopefully, not go straight to judging. In this remarkable and humane book, Dr Adshead is a psychiatrist who specialises in psychotherapy, gives 12 case studies of people that she has tried to help and support in Broadmoor and other settings of people who have done something wrong and how she has helped them to confront a tragedy and hopefully move on.
- When we plant a seed no matter how special it might be if it's not put in the right soil, receives the right amount of sunshine and water, the best nutrients, it isn’t going to grow to be a beautiful orchid or whatever flower the seed would become. Instead, it will grow up broken rather than beautiful. The author believes that a lot of early trauma and family disruption can lead to great harm as an adult.
- Our brains are often layered and sometimes we might feel numb, other times depressed, joyful and angry. Trying to be in a way that these different layers evolve in the thought processes of our mind can be difficult.
- One of the things that is interesting about psychotherapy is it's always looking at the reason for the cause has been something to do with the past and particularly childhood and children trauma and whilst I believe that much of this may well be the case I also work with a lot of young people who do erratic and irrational things, not because something terrible happened to them when young but because of how brain structure occurred, for example those with autism which isn't due to a cause in your past but some part of your brain chemistry doesn't quite work like others or processes the world in a very different way. It's really important when looking at causes and I do believe that early childhood trauma can impact on people but isn’t the only route to why people might develop into different selves.
- Most people who suffer mental health are often harmless to society and are at greater risk of harm from others than the rest of society. The author is so compassionate and full of wisdom in how she helps these people.
- There is a fascinating story about Lydia who is a stalker who eventually managed to persuade everybody that she is quite reasonable and rational but then in one of the discussions with the psychiatrist, it turns out that she is so far from reality and still so intent on causing harm to the person she was stalking, that I thought about it for days.
- In another case where a young girl is thought to be causing harm to her baby, that's an interesting observation that many of these people will often say ‘I just thought something was wrong’ and will then go to lengths for others to find that something is wrong when often nothing is wrong. That feeling then overwhelms and takes over them and all their rationality (Munchhausen syndrome by proxy). Note: Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) is a mental health problem in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury in a person under his or her care, such as a child, an elderly adult, or a person who has a disability.
- The author relates many of the stories as survivors of disaster movies where the perpetrators are the disaster. It's an interesting analogy to describe how these people have become damaged, many of them through the early trauma to become the person that they eventually became and the authors attempt to reconcile and understand with compassion and care.
- The story about Sam is interesting to know how many of his difficulties relate to moments of clarity and understanding and then despair as a person with schizophrenia. On occasions having a psychotic break where he trashed and destroyed his sister's bedroom looking for something that he assumes stolen and then being mortified of what he has done - and yet not aware of his actions at the time, only afterwards.
- If someone has cerebral palsy (a disorder of the brain that manifests itself in reducing movements of the body that can be spastic or athotoid and that means for some they can’t walk or talk) we understand the brain can impact on movement, its sad that we can’t see that the brain could also effect behaviour and personality in similar ways and we need compassion and understanding. Those with mental health issues can have problems that manifest in many different levels of intensity and in how they manage these difficulties.
- It's interesting to note that there is not much in the way of long-term care in a hostel for people with mental health problems nowadays, in fact the average length of stay in a secure unit is three weeks.
- The author also notes that though there is care for patients, there exists little in the way of care for their carers and family members who can often be in as much fear and concern as their child or partner who has a mental health problem. They deserve care also.
- And perhaps the one thing the author is trying to give these individuals is the opportunity to have ‘hope’, the strongest of emotions in a world of pain and something that the author is always driving to give these patients to tell their dark stories.

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