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The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion Audiobook
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In eleven vivid narratives based on decades of providing therapy to people in prisons and secure hospitals, an internationally renowned forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist demonstrates the remarkable human capacity for radical empathy, change, and redemption.
What drives someone to commit an act of terrible violence? Drawing from her thirty years’ experience in working with people who have committed serious offenses, Dr. Gwen Adshead provides fresh and surprising insights into violence and the mind. Through a collaboration with coauthor Eileen Horne, Dr. Adshead brings her extraordinary career to life in a series of unflinching portraits.
Alongside doctor and patient, we hear about human cruelty—ranging from serial homicide to stalking, arson, or sexual offences—and what it means to perpetrators, experiencing first-hand how minds can change when the people some might label as “evil” are able to take responsibility for their life stories and get to know their own minds.
With outcomes ranging from hope to despair, from denial to recovery, these men and women are revealed in all their complexity and shared humanity. In this era of mass incarceration, deep cuts in mental health care, and extreme social schisms, this book offers a persuasive argument for compassion over condemnation.
Moving, thought provoking, and brilliantly told, The Devil You Know is a rare and timely book with the power to transform our ideas about cruelty and violence, and to radically expand the limits of empathy.
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“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 Reviews
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“An extraordinary book. Shocking, sad and absolutely fascinating.”
— Sebastian Faulks, New York Times bestselling author -
“Full of wisdom and insight, warmth and mercy, this book offers new ways of seeing our common humanity.”
— Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, New York Times bestselling author -
“[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.”
— Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
Awards
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A New York Times Pick of This Week's Best Audiobooks
The Devil You Know Listener Reviews
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Violetta B, 12/12/2023
About the Authors
Dr. Gwen Adshead is one of the United Kingdom’s leading forensic psychiatrists and psychotherapists. She has a masters degree in medical law and ethics. She has published several academic books and over one hundred papers and commissioned articles on forensic psychotherapy, moral reasoning and ethics, and attachment theory.
Eileen Horne is an American author and dramatist currently based in California, with an MA in Creative Writing from the University of London. Following a long career in the UK as an independent TV drama producer, over the last decade, she has written an eclectic mix of historical nonfiction, journalism, Italian translation, as well as several original dramas and literary adaptations.