Violence affects us all. There are daily reports of murders, shootings, abductions and child abuse in the media. We may be horrified and disturbed by violence but is also fascinates and intrigues us. Widely reported crimes profoundly affect the way in which we view our own humanity and leave us searching for explanations. How and why do such terrible events happen? Who are these people and what drives them to commit such appalling acts of brutality and destruction? Elie Godsi examines the lives of the perpetrators of violence and offers us ways of making sense of acts that seem beyond our comprehension. He explores the roots of violence and distress in personal experience and offers a challenging exploration of the way in which society tries to make sense of madness and badness. He is critical of current cultural and medical perspectives that exaggerate biological, genetic and psychological explanations and marginalise the contribution of brutalising social and environmental influences. He challenges us to consider a more critical and compassionate view of violence and personal distress, one that places these experiences within a global social, cultural and economic context.

About the Author
Elie Godsi is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, therapist, television and radio broadcaster and author. Over the course of his career he has worked extensively with violent men and women as well as their victims. He has also spent many years working in community-based mental health and forensic services, in various hospital and prison settings and with young offenders in residential units.

Reviews
A book that is as broad as this inevitably leaves the reader with questions about how and where to act. Indeed, this thought provoking quality is one of the many strengths of this book, which deserves the widest possible readership for its clarity, ambitious scope and radical myth busting in an area in which the ratio between cultural cliche and genuine knowledge has never been a favourable one. Paul Moloney & Suzanne Elliot, Clinical Pyschologists, Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2005.



Book Information
ISBN 9781898059622
Author Elie Godsi
Format Paperback
Page Count 250
Imprint PCCS Books
Publisher PCCS Books