The #British Academy: Four questions with Professor #EssiViding FBA

Professor Essi Viding FBA

Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, University College London

1.What have you been reading, watching and listening to over the last month?

At the time of writing this, I have just come back from the Christmas holidays, so my diet of reading, watching and listening has been an embarrassment of riches – although not of the work variety.

Two books in particular have captivated me in the past month. Professor Philippe Sands FBA’s ‘The Last Colony‘ is the account of the shameful, forcible removal of Chagossians from their archipelago and their prolonged fight for justice. Sands has, once again, written a masterpiece that combines fascinating colonial history and a nail-biting court case, with a psychologically astute examination of the human impact of colonialism. Elizabeth Strout’s ‘Oh William!‘ is a novel that achieves the near-impossible feat of allowing you to genuinely inhabit someone else’s thoughts and feelings. It is a wonderfully compassionate and human book, forgiving of the protagonists’ – and the broader humanity’s – inevitable hang-ups and shortcomings.

I love binge-watching box sets over the holidays and the favourite this time around was ‘The White Lotus‘. So many fascinatingly flawed humans, plot twists, humour and amazing cinematography – it has been absolutely gripping. Music-wise I have been listening to a lot of Jakub Jósef Orliński, a Polish countertenor with a completely angelic voice. Him singing Vivaldi’s ‘Vedro con mio diletto‘ from Il Giustino is perfection.                                                                       

2.What book do you always return to?

I am not sure I can pick just one, there are too many wonderful books. J. D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye‘ is one of the books that got me interested in psychology, so perhaps we can give it a special mention.

3.What’s your guilty pleasure to read, watch or listen to?

This is easy, ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race‘.                                                                                                                                                      

4.What’s one piece of interesting advice you can give us that you’ve learnt from your subjects?

Giving advice is tricky, particularly as it rarely applies in all cases. One thing I often discuss with friends, is the propensity of our generation to feel endless guilt about how we parent. I take great comfort in what developmental psychology has taught us about ‘good enough’ parenting – there are many ways to parent, but most children turn out ok. Furthermore, it is unrealistic for all children to be similarly excellent at everything. Each child is born with a particular set of propensities and whilst these are not fixed, a child is not a blank slate either. This means that certain things come more or less easily for particular children. Whilst this can be a joy or a challenge, depending on the child, it is not necessarily a sign that we are doing something particularly right or wrong as parents.