James MacKeith Lecture 2025 | Human Duties: relational security and therapy for violence perpetrators

Human Duties: relational security and therapy for violence perpetrators

Friday 7th March
7.00pm - 8.30pm (GMT)

Speaker: Gwen Adshead
Discussant: Don Campbell

Chair: David Bell

Hybrid event at The Institute of Psychoanalysis and Online via Zoom.

This event will be recorded and available to all registered participants for 1 week.

"In this talk, I will suggest that human rights need to be understood in the context of our duties to each other, which in turn are based on a relational state of mind. I will explore this relational state of mind from the perspective of attachment theory and attachment security as a state of mind which promotes positive relationships. I will discuss the evidence that attachment insecurity is common among those with poor mental health and especially in groups of people who commit acts of violence against other humans. I will discuss what these studies might imply for services that offer interventions with violence perpetrators, and the kind of therapies that emphasise the paying of attention to one’s own mind and the minds of others"

Gwen Adshead is a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, who has worked with perpetrators of violence in secure hospitals and prisons for over 25 years. She is trained as group analyst, as a mindfulness based cognitive therapist and in mentalisation based therapy. She has a long-standing interest in attachment theory and its application to interpersonal violence and therapy for violence. Gwen also has a long-standing interest in medical law and ethics; she has a master’s degree in the subject from King’s College London and in 2013 was awarded the President’s Medal by the Royal College of Psychiatrists for her work in mental health ethics. Gwen is a regular lecturer and teacher and has published widely in both journals and as an editor and author of books about forensic mental health and personality disorders. In 2021, she wrote her first book for a general audience, with her good friend Eileen Horne, entitled ‘The Devil You know’. In 2024, she as awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and was also invited to give the BBC Reith Lectures. Titled ‘Four Questions about Violence’, the lectures will be published by Faber in the autumn of 2025.

Don Campbell is a training and supervising analyst, Distinguished Fellow, past President of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and former Secretary General of the International Psychoanalytic Association. He also served as Chair of the Portman Clinic in London where he worked in outpatient psychoanalytic psychotherapy as a child, adolescent and adult analyst for 30 years with violent and delinquent individuals and patients suffering from a perversion.

JAMES MACKEITH, OBE, who died in 2007, was an outstanding Forensic Psychiatrist who dedicated himself to Human Rights issues and to the collaboration between his field and psychoanalysis.

REFUND POLICY: Tickets are fully refundable until 14 days before the lecture, after which time no refunds will be issued.

Concession tickets are available, for students, BPAS candidates and NHS trainees and nurses. Please email outreach@iopa.org.uk if you are unsure if you qualify for a concession ticket.

Views and opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Institute, event organisers or other speakers. We expect delegates to respect the confidentiality of clinical material discussed in our events. The content must not be recorded, conveyed or disseminated in any format and participants must not share access to the event with non-registered participants.