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The Cradle of Violence

Essays on Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Literature

Stephen Wilson

Number 2 in the Forensic Focus series

Paperback: £19.99 / $36.95

1995, 234mm x 156mm / 9.25in x 6in, 176pp
ISBN: 978-1-85302-306-4, BIC 2: JMK MMF MMJT

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`There are sixteen chapters covering topics from multiple personality to `Prejudice in Poetry'… Several interesting case vignettes are featured throughout the book and add to its interest… This is a book I would ask to be stocked by the library which I use regularly at the local psychiatric hospital.'

-Counselling

`There is a pleasing straightforwardness and elegance to this collection of essays… he is refreshingly free of any exigent need for comprehensiveness or oppressive expertise.'

-British Journal of Psychiatry

`I enjoyed reading each and every one of these humane, insightful, well-crafted essays, which are infused with the author's `enduring passions' of literature and psychoanalysis. I recommend them to overburdened academics on the grounds that they will encourage a broader, less channelled vision and invite creative thoughts which, maybe in indirect ways, can be applied to the understanding of anti-social acts and thus their regulation through criminal justice. [The author's] economical but mellifluous writing, his clear focus, lack of jargon and copious use of literary references make reading these essays a pleasure rather than a chore. Wilson's analysis of individual motivations is rich and complex, drawing on his working experience with distressed and disturbed people as well as psychoanalysis and literature, to illuminate `the underside of our "thin veneer of civilisation"' (preface). Such insights, which, when applied forensically, help to understand violent criminals charged in a court of law, also teach us about ourselves.'

-British Journal of Criminology

`…this contribution is on the one hand charming and informative, and, on the other, idiosyncratic and anecdotal. This is a book which might attract people thinking it will make good bedtime or holiday reading. Don't be surprised, though, if it causes a mind-racing, sleepless night.'

-British Journal of Psychotherapy