It was great to welcome back Dr Mark Freestone, who gave a virtual talk to the Sixth Form Psychology Society:

I started Hymers in 1989 and graduated in 1996 with the odd combination of Maths, Physics and English A-levels (I caused Ann Chorlton a great deal of stress timetabling me), mainly because Psychology was not available then even though I really wanted to do that. I read Social and Political Sciences (which included psychology) at Cambridge, PhD at Nottingham and went to work in the prison service and the NHS as a psychological researcher and now, among other things, run a teaching unit at Queen Mary that runs postgraduate training for those wanting careers in clinical , counselling or forensic psychology.

Our Forensic Psychology and Mental Health course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) for those interested in a career as a forensic psychologist, and I also give presentations on Queen Mary undergrads about careers in psychology from time to time. I’m also in discussion with Health Education England about running a new North London Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, although that’s a long way off for now.

I have worked a lot in a (mainly forensic) psychology role; I’m an academic, not a practising (‘chartered’) psychologist. 

Mark Freestone

OH 1989-96

Mark is the leading expert who helped to create the BBC TV series Killing Eve's Villanelle and is the author of the book 'Making a Psychopath: My Journey into 7 Dangerous Minds'.  The book examines case studies of the types of typical psychopaths and his first-hand experience of some of the most disturbing psychopath cases, leading to the question of how we can stop them.

Mark Freestone, MA PhD FHEA

• Reader in Mental Health & Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes
• Centre for Psychiatry, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine
• Queen Mary University of London, Charterhouse Square London EC1M 6BQ
• University Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute – www.turing.ac.uk
• “Making a Psychopath” out on Penguin Books, 15/10/2020 - bit.ly/2Cuuisd