The Devil You Know by Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne
Book author: Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne
Edition: Faber & Faber · Paperback, 2022 · ISBN 9780571357628
An absorbing invitation to think more carefully about violence, responsibility and the demanding work of helping people change.
Book overview
The Devil You Know brings the reader close to an area of criminal justice that is often reduced to labels. Forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead and writer Eileen Horne explore therapeutic work with people who have committed serious offences, drawing on Adshead’s experience in secure hospitals, prisons and the community. The central interest is how a person understands their actions and whether that understanding can change.
The use of individual portraits gives the book a clear appeal for readers interested in the human side of practice. An interview with Adshead explains that the eleven case studies are composites, protecting the individuals behind them. They are therefore best approached as carefully constructed accounts of clinical experience, rather than identifiable case files or a guide to particular prosecutions.
The book’s value for this collection lies in the questions it raises about responsibility, empathy and rehabilitation. Its publisher describes outcomes that include both recovery and despair, which makes the promise of change more complicated than a simple success story. This is a useful basis for reflection by probation staff, students and anyone whose work involves looking beyond a person’s offence while taking its consequences seriously.
Readers seeking a comprehensive forensic psychiatry textbook or a practical risk-assessment manual will need specialist material alongside it. The emphasis here is on encounters and understanding. For a general reader, that makes it an inviting route into difficult questions about violence and treatment, with enough depth to prompt further reading and discussion.
At a glance
Who it’s for: Criminal justice practitioners, students and general readers interested in forensic psychology, responsibility and rehabilitation.
Key themes: Forensic psychology · Rehabilitation · Mental health · Violence
An absorbing invitation to think more carefully about violence, responsibility and the demanding work of helping people change.
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Sources and further reading
Editorial overview based on publisher information, author accounts and the sources linked below.
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