The body and mind are a single system, yet most therapists treat them as separate entities with obvious treament limitations. A commentary on BBC Radio 4’s Reith Lecture No. 4. “Can we change Violent Minds?” by forensic psychiatrist, Dr Gwen Adshead,

But first to quote from her lecture:

The problem of changing violent minds is one that is important to all of us, if only financially. The UK spent £6.4 billion pounds – that’s around $8 billion on the prison estate for the year ending 2023, and an increase is planned. The costs of incarcerating people as a form of risk management are getting bigger, as judges impose longer sentences. The average cost of detention in prison is now £51,000 or US$64,000 per prisoner, per year. But economic evaluations suggest that increasing prison terms is not good value for money; even if there is a deterrent effect, it is modest at best, and the value outweighed by the huge costs of incarceration.

The research on what helps violence perpetrators change their minds for the better, is important to me personally, because my role in the hospital where I work is a small part of much bigger national and international effort to reduce the risk of people reoffending. As a therapist, and someone who has sought therapy, I know that most people who come to therapy are seeking a change of mind, which they hope will change their lives and, crucially, the ways they relate to others. In that sense, I am like those violence perpetrators in hoping that over time, therapy will help us change our minds for good. My experience is that most violence perpetrators who come for therapy are hoping that they can let go of their old ways of thinking and can lead a new life as part of a community.

Then in reply to Anita Anand’s “Okay, but what about the money question? I mean, do they [Norwegians] just throw more money at it than others?”

Well, I don’t know – as we just heard, the UK spends £6.4 billion on its prison estate. So that’s quite a lot of money for still quite a high recidivism rate. And as we heard, for people who come out of prison, not feeling particularly changed in their minds,

Commentary
The whole lecture series was enlightening in changing the focus from harsh punishment regimes in penal institutions  to more rehabilitation oriented ‘therapeutic’ regimes. However, although some biological concomitants were dealt with, the mis-match between being #right# minded and #wright# handed was yet again neglected,

My experience in conducting assessments for medico-legal and legal purposes reveals that discovering that their writing hand is not their adept hand provides those whose minds need to be changed with the insight to effect change almost immediately. For the simple reason that it has been an undiagnosed co-factor in their presenting problems.

One question that has been asked by Judge Mort and still needs to be answered is why this simple ‘assessment’ is not conducted as an integral part of an viRthpyinitial assessment of those with vioent (and other neuro-divergent) minds The benefits of doing so are obvious: changed individual mind-behaviour and cost savings to the treasury,