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

by Kerry Daynes

Telling our personal stories, naming and acknowledging our experiences, is fundamentally how human beings make sense of our world. For most of us that means talking with our friends or family. For others it’s therapy or counselling – the premise is the same: through the simple act of talking we process and understand ourselves, and others. When we don’t or can’t tell our stories, they manifest in other ways. Emotions need a voice. Without it they seep out eventually.

Between half and three-quarters of people receiving mental health care report having been either physically or sexually abused as children.

mental distress is more likely a product of complex, overlapping personal and social factors than simply wonky brain chemistry or unfortunate genetics.

Behavioural analysts at the UK Emotional Intelligence Academy have since identified the 3-2-7 rule: if a suspect has a cluster of three reactions (for example, nodding, flushing and voice dropping in pitch), across two or more of the six channels that communicate emotional information (interactional style, voice, verbal content, facial expression, body movements and physiological changes) within seven seconds of the question, it is a reliable indication of deception.