How have Londoners responded to the threat and reality of terrorism over the last 60 years, and is the use of professionals to reduce and manage psychological responses to adversity the most effective method of recovery? Explore these questions and more in a lecture being held this evening, Monday 15 March.
How have Londoners responded to the threat and reality of terrorism over the last 60 years, and is the use of professionals to reduce and manage psychological responses to adversity the most effective method of recovery? Explore these questions and more in a lecture being held this evening, Monday 15 March.
Professor Simon Wessely, Director of The King’s Centre for Military Health Research at King’s College London will deliver the lecture which is part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
Professor Wessely says that there is a link between the reality of terror from the Second World War and today, and that this link is our general tendency to under estimate the resilience of ordinary Londoners to terrorism.
The lecture will ask if there was such a thing as ‘blitz spirit’ in the Second World War, and why ordinary Londoners did not panic after the July 7th bombings.
He will argue that people are tougher than we think they are, especially when they understand why they are being asked to endure risk and danger. He’ll ask why there is an automatic assumption that what is needed after any disaster or tragedy is counselling.
He will conclude that we should trust the public more than we do, and instead ensure that psychological services are best directed on the small numbers of those really in need.
Professor Wessely’s first published article was titled ‘Dementia and Mrs Thatcher’ and he has since published over 400 academic papers and numerous books including those on his recent research focus: Military health, Gulf War Syndrome and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many of his books have been published by Cambridge University Press.
The event will begin at 7:30pm in Lecture Room 3, Mill Lane Lecture Rooms and is free and open to all over the age of 14.
The Cambridge Science Festival is the UK's largest free science festival offering adults and children alike the chance to get involved in some of the University's cutting edge research between 8 and 21 March.
For more information and the full programme for the Cambridge Science Festival please follow the link top right of the page.
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