Gwen Adshead


Gwen Adshead born 1960 is a forensic psychotherapist, Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at Gresham College, Jochelson visiting professor at the Yale School of Law and Psychiatry, and consultant forensic psychiatrist at Ravenswood House.
Adshead qualified in medicine in 1983 and holds two master's degrees; in medical law and ethics, and in mindfulness based cognitive therapy. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2005. She was previously a consultant at Broadmoor Hospital, where she treated people referred to by the media as "the violent insane", but whom she described as "not mad or bad, but sad". She has written more than a hundred academic papers.
She was the castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 1 July 2010, and in 2012 received a Jerwood Award to support the writing of A Short Book About Evil, published 28 Apr 2015.
She is the mother of two boys.