The Dark Side of the Mind: True Stories from My Life as a Forensic Psychologist

by Kerry Daynes

upended and dispersed. All I really wanted was for him – everything – to go away. Reporting a crime felt like inviting a whole new wave of problems into my life. Still, I called them, and many months later found myself in court. Dr Albert von Schrenck-Notzing was the first psychologist known to have testified in court when he gave evidence about the credibility of witness testimony in a Munich murder trial in 1896. I’d been imagining my first moment in court since what seemed like 1896. In my vision I was the erudite expert, holding the court in thrall as I educated judge and jury with my accomplished testimony, Queen’s Counsel sighing ‘no further questions Your Honour’, conceding defeat in the face of my professionalism under cross-examination. What I hadn’t ever aspired to was giving evidence as the victim, cheeks burning, struggling to phrase my justifications for not complaining sooner. In the court proceedings that eventually followed, I testified that I felt like a performing seal, constantly trying to keep the mood upbeat and see off a potential rage that could be triggered by something minuscule and, once ignited, could blaze for days. So I understood the state of perpetual fear that Alison talked about – always expectant, waiting for something to blow up and doing everything you can to avoid it – but finding over and over again that you can’t, because of course it isn’t your behaviour that is the problem, it is theirs. It was only a local magistrates’ court – smal...