Professor Edgar Jones

Biography

Edgar Jones is an authority on the psychological effects of modern war and conflict. He has studied both conventional armed forces and terrorism, exploring how individuals cope during periods of intense stress and the impact of traumatic experiences on their wellbeing. More recently he has researched moral injury, an enduring belief of being wronged or having been compelled to act in ways that feel wrong, in servicemen and women. Edgar Jones has also published on risk factors for radicalisation and support of political violence. He has written extensively on shell shock, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic multi-symptom illness suffered as a result of military service. The author of a number of reports for government and military or mental health charities, his work seeks to shape policy and practice.

Edgar Jones originally studied history, researching a doctorate at Nuffield College, Oxford. He subsequently joined the department of psychiatry at Guy's Hospital where he completed a doctorate in clinical psychopathology and trained as a psychodynamic psychotherapist. Having previously taught at University College London and been a senior research fellow at the LSE, Edgar Jones joined the Institute of Psychiatry in January 1998. He was awarded the Gideon de Laune Gold Medal by the Faculty of the History and Philosophy of Medicine, Society of Apothecaries in 2007, and received a President’s Medal for a significant contribution to improving the lives of people with mental illness from the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2015.

Research Interests

• Military psychology and psychiatry as applied to combat
• The psychological dimensions of terrorism
• Moral injury

Teaching

• Programme Leader for the MSc in War & Psychiatry

Expertise & Public Engagement

• Handling editor and member of editorial board of the British Journal of Psychiatry
• Member of the the MQ/The Lancet Psychiatry Standing Commission on the COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health
• Regular contributor to television documentaries on the psychology of war and conflict