The late Jessica Berens, the journalist, author, charity worker and writer-in-residence at the notoriously tough Dartmoor Prison, who died earlier this year aged 59, was a heroine of mine.

The late Jessica Berens, the journalist, author, charity worker and writer-in-residence at the notoriously tough Dartmoor Prison, who died earlier this year aged 59, was a heroine of mine. She remembers a scary moment when she was walking along a passage in the prison with a lifer. Suddenly, the lights went off. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I trust you.”

The story came to mind this week when I was struggling to lug my bike up the stairs of the Golden Jubilee footbridge across the Thames, near Embankment, not realising there was a lift. I looked up and saw a powerfully built young man bounding along the pavement towards me. He was wearing a grubby grey hoodie, and I couldn’t make out his face. Oh no, I thought, trying to work out how I could grab my bag, phone and wallet from the bike’s yellow wicker basket without letting go of its frame or falling down the stairs. “That looks tricky,” he laughed. “Can I give you a hand with that bike?”

Both stories got me pondering on the kind of thinking traps we can fall into. First, how easy it is to live in a state of high alertness, with a highly developed fight-or-flight response. And, second, which is related, how often we then construct narratives about the intentions of those around us – often negative ones – falling into the mistake of imagining we can read the minds of others.

Get Instant Access

Continue Reading

Register for free to read this article in full

REGISTER

Subscribe for unlimited access

SUBSCRIBE NOW

From just £37.50 quarterly

  Print copy of The Tablet delivered directly to your door.
  Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
  Access to the weekly digital copy of The Tablet.
  Full access to The Tablet’s archive – over 180 years of back issues.

Already a subscriber? Login