Criminal psychology and its application to a world-famous literary classic was the focus of the most recent event in the Queen's Academic Lecture programme.
Dr Chris Nicholson dived into the disturbed psychology that might have led Mr Hyde to commit one of his most terrible crimes in the Robert Louis Stevenson classic 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'.
The talk sought to shed light on how psychological theory can aid in understanding deviant behaviour.
"From the novel we learn that Dr Jekyll was subject to very strict control by his father in his childhood and that this may have built up resentment and the desire to seek freedom through the personality of Hyde," said Dr Nicholson, course director on the Psychodynamic Practice BA at the University of Essex.
"This might explain why he attacked the older male figure of Sir Danvers Carew as there seems to be very little explanation for the attack otherwise."
Dr Nicholson drew extensively on his knowledge of the work of Freud, explaining the character of Hyde as reflecting 'primary narcissism' or an obsession with himself and fulfilling his own needs and desires.
He also spoke about the idea of di-psychism meaning the splitting of a character into two distinct parts as happens in texts like 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and also Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'.
The lecture was the last in the series which has attracted academics from all over the country to speak to Year 12 pupils who are currently making decisions on university subjects and choices.