Understanding Violence

 

Zoom lectures have become some of the major benefit side effects, of the pandemic
I have enrolled in several film study lectures varying from such topics as new film noir, wind mise en scéne and horror and have dipped my toes into Opera appreciation and Welsh Folklore.
Tomorrow at noon there is a free zoom lecture run by the Chester Storyhouse in conjunction with Chester University. It’s topic should be interesting as it is a discussion by a forensic psychologist on the subject of violence .


I’ve left the link if anyone wants to give the free lecture a try.
When I was a psychiatric nurse I was never really exposed to many violent encounters. 
Sure there would be the odd moment when a sectioned patient may have needed restraining, or medication was needed to be given. But the training was good and staffing was adequate that these sort of situations were rare.
As a general nurse however, I have been involved in many more graphic and upsetting physical altercations , not everyone with patients and I must say, being of a bigger build has proved useful at these times.
I have punched only one person in my life. And that punch was meant to hurt and hurt badly, as the recipient had pulled a knife out in a drunken rage.. 
And I have also slapped someone who said something so hurtful I reacted like a pained child and lashed out.
The punch I don’t regret
The slap I did.
That is a synopsis of my brief journey into instigating violence.

I will listen to the lecture by Professor Taj Nathan with interest.
He’s somewhat easy of the eye too 

I wonder if I will see any of you there?  

44 comments:

  1. Not me - too many "triggers" for me. Hope you find it useful and interesting though, look forward to reading how you find it.

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    1. I’ve always been interested in BAD vers MAD
      I’ve visited Rampton as a student and although it intrigued me , I was scared to death

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  2. Sounds interesting, I have a schedule conflict. We are working on a project right now with a bunch of forensic psychologists and psychiatrists.

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    1. He’s selling a book , I must admit, I did note

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  3. One thing the pandemic has brought is that it's made video conferencing part of our daily lives and things like this more accessible.
    I loathe sitting in mindless meetings staring at people's bookshelves, but this sounds super interesting!
    Thanks for the link!

    XOXO

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    1. And I love the fact that Chester Storyhouse organises these lectures free of charge

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  4. Your courses sound interesting. I'm at a different point in my life though one area in which I continue to be interested is brain science as well as communication.

    I never experienced violence with any patients though I knew it could be risky, especially with some brain injured patients and/or those having lost impulse control from whatever the neuro issues might be. Colleagues in a different medical setting took special self-defense training, sometimes had aides accompanying patients they were seeing. I did see one brain injured patient, motorcycle accident, who initially couldn't speak but gradually did. He could be unpredictable, and became more active, was advanced to a different setting where I was told he once bit off the end of his own finger.

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    1. The most violence I saw regularly was on high dependency, learning difficulties and intensive care , hypoxic patients can sometimes be the most paranoid

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  5. Anonymous11:18 am

    You can try to understand violence, but it is hard to predict, to understand and at times illogical. A summary of what you learnt from the lecture might make an interesting post.

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    1. Yes, I’m interested in hearing just what he has to say

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  6. I find people's behaviour intriguing and wonder what is going on inside their brains to make them act in such an unacceptable manner-unfortunately I have experience of several narcissists who are more susceptable to anger and have difficulty with control concerning their issues x

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    1. Yes I suspect the professor will cover narcissists as they seem to be in vogue

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    2. There's quite a lot of them about John-they Have to feel they are in control of everything around themselves and when corrected on their actions about something or other they'flip'and that's when it can become unsafe x

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  7. I think many violent incidents in hospitals are caused by drink, drugs, frustration or fear. Those aren't excuses. Those who do have excuses such as mental illness or neurological problems, have my sympathy. Still not pleasant for the person on the receiving end, though. xx

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    1. Tick tick tick tick to all four
      Add to the list pain, lack of information , hypoxia and any brain injury

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  8. I have not hit anyone in years. I almost pummeled the guy Billie dumped me for but he didn't come outside. That was a story I didn't include in the book :). It was the day after I found out, she said she was going to break it off instead she went to his house after work. I knew where he lived and checked up on her.

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    1. Fighting rivals is pointless I’ve been told , just a case of transference ……

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  9. Barbara Anne1:25 pm

    I've not hit anyone since early childhood and perhaps one reason for that is because I'm a petite adult. I've never been confronted by a violent person, patient or not, maybe for the same reason?
    Enjoy the lecture!

    Hugs!

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    1. Some of the toughest women I ve ever encountered have been slight and petite

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  10. Yes rather easy on the eye. Kind of reminds me of the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, who has an amazing Youtube channel covering almost everything(!) This one has similar subject matter. It might be interesting to compare them?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vXVn8bK2wA

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  11. One of my brothers had a good understanding of violence - he was a prison officer for many years. Tall, and big with it, he was never attacked. He used to joke that he could place his hand on someone's head, and that they could never reach to punch him, but I'm sure he saw more than most of us over the years. Perhaps prison tensions and violence are easier to understand, certainly than those men who take their bad temper out on their women and children!

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    1. I’ve been protected in the clinical area by policemen ( and a few women) who have exuded a sense of power and control similar to the one you describe.
      And boy was I grateful for that

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  12. Before I went to College to train for teaching I worked for a year in what was then called An adult school for severely sub normal patients. Some of them were extremely violent. The head was a tiny slip of a woman and her control was perfect. Absolutely nobody misbehaved when she was around - all it took was a look. She taught me a lot.

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    1. An old reference regarding people with learning difficulties ….I had only one placement at a hospital with the most challenging behaviours, and it scared me shitless

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    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    3. It’s been said already

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    4. Debbie9:51 pm

      Sub normal? My goodness that isn't allowed these days and rightly so.
      I'm surprised you didn't delete Weaver's comment John.


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  13. As a nurse I've been punched in the face by a patient who had a female nurse pinned behind a desk, kicked in the face by a patient during my student psychiatric stint (my fault - he was schizophrenic and apologised immediately afterwards) and have had a patient's beefy relative waiting to pummel me in a corridor outside the ward where he believed I had manhandled his grandfather back into bed (I was the only visible male nurse - the accusation was actually levelled at a student male nurse on nights who had been suspended - but was untrue anyway). I've also nursed a murderer who was using his hospital bed (alleged an overdose) to hide from the police. All that said, whilst violence is clearly never acceptable it's something that can arise when you are a nurse dealing with people on a face-to-face basis. Far worse have been the underhand tactics, trample on others brown-nosing and nastiness of a minority of the staff and managerial bullies I've had to work with. Rather the rare patient 'episode' than those!

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    1. I can relate to all of those stories
      I’ve also been threatened by the husband of a heavily pregnant woman in the first stages of labour when I dared to look at her vagina

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  14. John, someone pointing a knife at you with intent to use it and your responding to it with a punch isn't instigating imo. I'd see that more as self defense.

    I have not had much need for violence as an adult, I am glad to say.

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    1. It was with a former boyfriend , who I’m sure wouldn’t havedone anything with it. I was so angry though and made sure.
      I think it’s one of the most angry I have ever been

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  15. When I worked in psychiatric hospital the full moon brought out the worst in people. You could feel the tension when you walked into the building.

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    1. I often heard staff say that in the mental health field as well as general wards
      I’ve never really subscribed to the notion myself

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    2. I worked for 8 years with ex psychiatric patients who all had intellectual or physical difficulties. There was one old lovely (female) who would bite anyone who was scratching.. I digress...on a full moon she would wait for the moon to rise then walk outside and look for the moon raise her right hand put her finger and thumb together "around" the moon. Grunt and walk back inside. Every single time.

      Jo in Auckland

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  16. It sounds very interesting but I have a lunch date tomorrow. If they did a catch up like iplayer I'd certainly watch.

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    1. I think there is some facility to see it again

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  17. I have a difficult time with even minor violence.

    It is wonderful that you have found so many interesting Zoom lectures and classes. That certainly is an unexpected benefit of the pandemic. Enjoy the lecture.

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    1. I think most of us have a problem with violence but I’m intrigued by how often it lurks under the radar

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    2. And soul destroying violence doesn't have to be physical.

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  18. I can understand you slapping someone who said something hurtful. It seems like a natural reaction to me. I don't think you should regret it.

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    1. I do regret it….even though I was provoked

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  19. I consider myself fortunate to not have experienced direct violence. I've known two men that had some tendencies (control issues and anger management) but they knew better than to act violently in my presence.

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