Publishers Weekly
05/17/2021
This heartfelt and nuanced memoir by Adshead, a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, charts her decades-long career in Britain’s National Health Service treating violent offenders. With the assistance of dramatist Horne, Adshead recounts 11 cases, each a composite to protect patient privacy. She treated her first serial killer, Tony, at England’s high-security Broadmoor Hospital for criminals. Having confessed to three murders, he remembered a fourth victim during talk therapy treatment. Success often meant treating suicidal convicts so they could be returned to prison to serve out their sentences or helping ex-cons return to the outside world. Some cases are tragic, some sad, and some unredeemable, such as that of Ian, who sexually abused his two sons and later committed suicide, and of Lydia, who wound up back in a mental hospital after being released from prison and attacking her therapist’s staff members in his office, but the author manages to humanize her subjects and make a case for devoting more resources to the treatment of all mentally ill in prisons. In addition, Adshead explains the British health-care system and offers a brief history of psychotherapy of inmates. For those interested in the inner workings of the criminal mind, this is must reading. Agent: Anna Stein, ICM Partners. (July)
From the Publisher
"Adshead’s warm intelligence, curiosity and nuanced understanding of her work inspire trust in what turns out to be an unmissable book... This insightful, compassionate and fascinating book will help us to move away from our blindness and misconceptions and shine a light on the stories beyond the headlines – stories that desperately need to be heard."—The Guardian
"One cannot help but be impressed by [Adshead's] ability to read the patient, to know when to probe further and when to back off, and to know how to lead the patient to discuss the horrific thing they’ve done, which they’ve often never spoken of to anyone. [The Devil You Know] is Adshead’s attempt to create a breakthrough with readers, who tend to view criminals as 'monsters' completely different from themselves." —The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
"Heartfelt and nuanced... For those interested in the inner workings of the criminal mind, this is must reading." —Publisher's Weekly
“Over a working life of more than 30 years, Adshead has served patients at Broadmoor, a place with 'a history of housing some of the UK’s most notorious violent criminals.' Adshead’s interest is not lurid, though there are lurid episodes, and her overarching goal is to secure more funding for better treatment. A welcome contribution to the literature of crime and rehabilitation."—Kirkus
"A fascinating, erudite, and beautifully written deep dive into the nature of evil. The Devil You Know makes the case for radical empathy and reminds us that all human beings are capable of darkness, and of light."
—Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story
"An extraordinary book. Shocking, sad and absolutely fascinating.”
—Sebastian Faulks, author of Birdsong
"This is a myth buster of a book—crammed with compelling, constructive, candid and compassionate insights into the criminal mind."
—Val McDermid, author of Still Life
"Hope is a verb, infusing every chapter in this remarkable account of a therapist working with violent offenders; full of wisdom and insight, warmth and mercy, this book offers new ways of seeing our common humanity."
—Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, Advocate for abolition of the death penalty and author of Dead Man Walking
"On killing and other crimes—a forensic, gripping, extraordinary and ultimately enlightening insider’s account of how and why it happens." —Philippe Sands, author of The Ratline: The Exalted Life and Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive
"This new text, The Devil you Know, is a masterful achievement. Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne build on an established literature that contemplates the use of narrative, compassion, empathy, and dignity in forensic psychiatry. They formulate a terrain of beneficence that must undergird caring for individuals who have committed serious criminal offences. These offenders are human beings, in possession of an inviolable human dignity. Their caregivers have an obligation toward them that is rooted in a vocational commitment bordering on the spiritual. All of this is presented in a prose that is engaging and lively. These scholars have advanced the field substantially with their brilliant observations and insights. The text is refreshingly creative." —Ezra E. H. Griffith, MD, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and African-American Studies, Yale University
"This book is both a gift and an invitation to transform the judging mind; may it touch many."—Father Richard Rohr OFM , Author, educator, and Founder of the Centre for Action and Contemplation
"This timely book puts a human face on people who are stigmatized and vilified by society, and whose experience of trauma and pain is not always recognized." —Dr. Linda A. Teplin, Director of the Health Disparities and Public Policy Program, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University
Library Journal
06/18/2021
Forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist Adshead has spent her career in the UK treating people charged with violent offenses; here, she and Horne (Zola and the Victorians) share 11 stories from Adshead's time at Broadmoor Hospital, in Berkshire. To preserve patient anonymity, each story is a composite of several individuals, from "Kezia," a woman who killed her care worker while under the delusion that he was possessed by a demon, to "Ian," a man who sexually assaulted his sons and eventually died by suicide. Each case is described with care and understanding, allowing the reader to get a sense of the human behind the crime. VERDICT A compassionate yet unflinching look into the psychology of people who perpetrate violent crimes, and the care afforded them in the UK, this book would be of interest to true crime fans and especially valuable to those studying psychology, medicine, or law.—Ahliah Bratzler, Indianapolis
Kirkus Reviews
2021-05-18
A physician recounts stories from her years at Broadmoor, Britain’s premier psychiatric institution.
Over a working life of more than 30 years, Adshead has served patients at Broadmoor, a place with “a history of housing some of the UK’s most notorious violent criminals.” As in the U.S., mental health facilities in Britain have been starved of funds in recent years, and those violent criminals are shut away instead in ordinary prisons, where they become predators and prey. Writing with Horne, Adshead notes that 70% of prisoners in the U.K. “are estimated to have at least two mental health issues, ranging from depression to substance misuse and addiction or psychosis.” While most people with mental health issues are not criminals, those who are often pose difficulties in securing treatment and taking medications. Before delivering a series of sometimes-discomfiting case studies of serial murder, child abuse, infanticide, and other horrific acts, Adshead observes that nations that have experienced military occupation, such as Norway and Holland, have been the most progressive in treatment of the mentally ill, perhaps because they consider mentally ill criminals to be ill first and criminals second. The protagonists of her case studies would seem to fit this description, though dark passages abound—e.g., an inmate who seemed to be on the path to recovery but committed suicide: “Ian had been unable to come to terms with himself, and in his mind, death became his best or only option.” Adshead’s interest is not lurid, though there are lurid episodes, and her overarching goal is to secure more funding for better treatment. “I wish for my psychiatric great-grandchildren to look back on this period as if revisiting medieval times…[which] did little to help people fix or rediscover their minds, inside and outside of institutions.”
A welcome contribution to the literature of crime and rehabilitation.
