Lectures - Spring 2007

From the Blitz to Bin Laden: psychological reactions to terror.

Speaker: Professor Simon Wessely
23rd June

Before the Second World War, it was assumed that strategic bombing would lead to mass panic. But the Blitz came and went and that did not happen. In this talk, Professor Simon Wessely will look at the reactions of Londoners to events from the Blitz to the July 7th bombings, and will use new historical research to argue that people are tougher than we think they are, especially when they understand why they are being asked to endure risk and danger. Contrasting London's reactions to 7th July with New York City's aftermath to 9/11 – where authorities launched the largest ever programme of mental health intervention seen to date – he challenges the automatic assumption that what is needed after any disaster or tragedy is mass counselling.

Professor Simon Wessely is Professor of Psychiatry at Kings College, London. His main research interests lie in the "grey areas" between medicine and psychiatry, clinical epidemiology and military health. His first paper was entitled "Dementia and Mrs. Thatcher". Since then he has published over 450 papers on subjects including epidemiology, post traumatic stress, medicine and law, the history of psychiatry, chronic pain, somatisation, Gulf War illness, chemical and biological terrorism and deliberate self-harm. He has published most widely on aspects of chronic fatigue syndrome, including its, history, immunology, sociology, epidemiology and treatment.

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