therapeutic challenges within the antisocial framing of incarceration and race

Therapeutic Challenges within the Antisocial Framing of Incarceration and Race

Two Conundrums

1. Largely professional white therapists … and largely poor people of color clients… what is it to be a white ally in this setting?

2. Psychotherapy frame vs. incarceration frame (holding-containment) … what is it to do therapy in a forensic setting?

Critical Race Theory

1. Individual prejudice vs. Institutional racism

2. Ethnicity vs. Race

3. Nature vs. Nurture

4. Old vs. New Types of Racism

Psychology and Race?

• Race and Personality Disorders? (e.g. Joel Kovel’s White Racism)

• Race and Psychoanalytic concepts of 1. Instincts?

2. Objects?

3. Archetypes?

4. Sex/Gender?

5. Defense Mechanisms

*6. Projections

*7. Fantasy?

*8. Frame?

C

B A

Review of Personality Disorders

C

B A

Dependent Avoidant Obsessive

C

B A

Dependent Avoidant Obsessive

Fearful, Anxious, Neurotic Breakdowns

C

B A

Dependent Avoidant Obsessive

Paranoid

Schizoid

Schizotypal

C

B A

Dependent Avoidant Obsessive

Paranoid

Schizoid

Schizotypal

Psychotic Breaks

C

B A

Dependent Avoidant Obsessive

Histrionic

Borderline

Antisocial

NarcissistParanoid

Schizoid

Schizotypal

C

B A

Dependent Avoidant Obsessive

Histrionic

Borderline

Antisocial

NarcissistParanoid

Schizoid

Schizotypal

Dramatic, Impulsive Breaking-out/Acting-out

C

B A

What connects or structures the clusters—at what points do they meet?

Detective?Rescuer?

Cynic?

C

B A

What corner is blocked out?

Rescuer? Detective?

Cynic?

C

B A

Rescuer? Detective?

Cynic?

C

B A

Rescuer?

Cynic?

Detective?

C

B A

How are the corners blocked in or out …or “framed”?

?

C

B A

Neurotic Frame

Frame I

Rescuer? Detective?

Cynic?

C

B A

Cynical Frame

Frame II-A

Rescuer? Detective?

Cynic?

C

B A

Cynical Frame

Frame II-B

Rescuer? Detective?

Cynic?

Basic Idea of a Frame and Projection

Inside

Included Centered

Acceptable Normal

Outside

Excluded Ignored

Unacceptable Abnormal

Protected Ego

Specific Idea of …(1) what’s inside:

Protected Ego

Social conventions, rules, laws, limits,

norms, boundaries.

…(2) what the frame itself is:

White

Norms

Protected White Ego

…(3) applied to whiteness:

Scary parts of oneself that are: excluded, repressed, split-off, projected outside!

Protected Ego

… (4), what’s outside:

??? ???

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

Professional Detective Fantasy

Frame

Cynical In-the-Know Fantasy

…(5) applied to the notion of fantasy:

Protected Ego

Repressive White Frame

Avoidant White Ego

Cluster C: Avoidant White!!!

???

Cynical Knowledge!!!!!

???

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

White Ego

Cynics

Cluster C: Dependent White

Repressive White Frame

• White pity/idealization: identifying with “those poor people!”

Professional Detectives

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

White Ego

Cynics

Cluster C: Dependent White

Repressive White Frame

• Selectively pointing out the “elephant in the room!”

Professional Detectives

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

White Ego

Cynics

Cluster C: Dependent White

Repressive White Frame

• Others have failed to help because at bottom they are cold-hearted.

Professional Detectives

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

White Ego

Cynics

Cluster C: Dependent White

Repressive White Frame

• White empathy: My special trusting love will cure all!

Professional Detectives

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

Cynics

Cluster C: Dependent White

Repressive White Frame

• Laughing at and guilt-tripping all narcissistic naiveté.

Professional Detectives

White Ego

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

Cynics

Cluster C: Dependent White

Repressive White Frame

• Rescuer needing rescue: hurt, fearful, I resentfully retreat back into the frame.

Professional Detectives

White Ego

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

Cynics

Cluster C: Dependent White

Repressive White Frame

Professional Detectives

• Professionals to the rescue, taking control!

White Ego

Trust or empathy is not the issue!

• “We must remember that although we want to be trustworthy, trust is not the issue. We are not fighting racism so that people of color will trust us. Trust builds over time through our visible efforts to be allies and fight racism. Rather than trying to be safe and trustworthy, we need to be more active, less defensive, and put issues of trust aside.”

Paul Kivel Uprooting Racism

Naïve Innocents

Professional Detective Fantasy

Cynics

Cluster C: Obsessive White

Repressive White Frame

• Ignorant, at risk, vulnerable peoples needing help.

White Ego

Naïve Innocents

Cynics

Cluster C: Obsessive White

Repressive White Frame

Professional Detective Fantasy

• Responsible, quick fix-it focus on details and blind spots.

White Ego

Naïve Innocents

Professional Detective Fantasy

Cynics

Cluster C: Obsessive White

Repressive White Frame

• Laughing at and guilt-tripping the repeated failures.

White Ego

• Angry about not being really helped.

Naïve Innocents

Professional Detective Fantasy

Cynics

Cluster C: Obsessive White

Repressive White Frame

• Reinforced sense of “white man’s burden” and need to enforce the frame.

White Ego

Naïve Innocents

Cynical In-the-Know Fantasy?

Frame?

Professional Detectives

Ego

• Laughing at and guilt-tripping the repeated failures.

• Laughing at and guilt-tripping all narcissistic naiveté.

Different Ways of Framing

Frame: I. Neurotic II. Cynical III.

Cluster: C A & B ?

Institution: Pluralistic Total ?

Features:Right to Privacy

Fluid Identity Flexible, Open

No Privacy Fixed Identity

Inflexible, Closed?

Examples:White pity,

white empathy, white guilt…

*Visual Cues *Toeing the Line *Frame Traps

*C.Y.A. Charting

?

Cynical In-the-know Fantasy

• Knowing that the frame --though rigid and visible-- is arbitrary, biased, constructed.

»As is the frame of race!

• Enjoying this knowledge for its certainty: In the know, above being duped or fooled or suckered, above the law.

»???

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

Professional Detectives

Cynics

Cluster C: Dependent White

Repressive White Frame

• My trust, empathy, love will cure all!

• As long as you don’t abuse my good will!

White Ego

• Laughed at and guilt-tripped for a narcissistic naiveté.

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics

Cluster B: Borderline White

Labeling White Frame

• No one understands me! Except maybe you?!

Professional Detectives

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics

Cluster B: Borderline White

Labeling White Frame

• White envy

• White exoticization

Professional Detectives

Innocent Rescue Fantasy Professional

Detectives

False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics

Cluster B: Borderline White

Labeling White Frame

• Easily charmed, flattered, seduced.

• Then victimized and misunderstood again.

The Rescuer’s Basic Life Lesson

• Empathy, trust, love, comfort, acceptance, safety … are not the main issues. Changing the institutional frame trap is the issue.

• Importance of letting go of a Cinderella/Dogville double standard. (What if you treated them the way you let them treat you?)

• Importance of mourning a loss of innocence. (e.g. Pinderhughes Understanding Race, Ethnicity, and Power. p. 107.)

Naïve InnocentsFalse

Labeled Self

Cynical In-the-Know Fantasy

• so cool, so hardened, so heartless …so funny

Cluster B: Antisocial

Labeling Frame

• Always the weakest and most vulnerable as the target. Without mercy.

Professional Detectives

Naïve Innocents

Professional Detective Fantasy

Cynics

Cluster C: Obsessive White

Repressive White Frame

• Reinforced sense of “white man’s burden” and need to enforce the frame.

White Ego

• Laughed at and guilt-tripped for repeated failures.

The Professional Detective’s Basic Life Lesson

• Importance of letting go of control and mourning loss of quick-fix competence and autonomy.

• Danger of bureaucratic, passive-aggressive, paper-pushing, passing-the-buck stance. Commit, risk being wrong, be real! (e.g. Kivel’s dialogue, p. 99)

Naïve Innocents

Professional Detective Fantasy

Cynics

Cluster C: Obsessive White

Repressive White Frame

• Reinforced sense of “white man’s burden” and need to enforce the frame.

White Ego

• Laughed at and guilt-tripped for repeated failures.

Naïve Innocents Professional Detective Fantasy

False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics

Cluster A: Schizoid White

Labeling Frame

Naïve Innocents Professional Detective Fantasy

False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics

Cluster A: Schizoid White

Labeling Frame

• Others’ loving vitality as too overwhelming and exhausting!

Naïve Innocents Professional Detective Fantasy

False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics

Cluster A: Schizoid White

Labeling Frame

• Impersonal, detached sense of self as odd, abnormal, not belonging

Professional Detective Fantasy

False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics

Labeling Frame

• Self as one of the few insiders who gets the joke: that life is a theatre of the absurd, especially in regards to race.

Naïve Innocents

Naïve Innocents Professional Detectives

False Labeled

Self

Cynical In-the-Know Fantasy

Cluster A: Paranoid White

Labeling Frame

Naïve Innocents Professional Detectives

False Labeled

Self

Cynical In-the-Know Fantasy

Cluster A: Paranoid White

Labeling Frame

• Others’ loving vitality as too invasive and threatening!

Naïve Innocents Professional Detectives

False Labeled

Self

Cynical In-the-Know Fantasy

Labeling Frame

• Self as the only one who gets the joke: that everyone is duped by the conspiracy involving race!

Innocent Rescue Fantasy

Professional Detectives

False Labeled

Self

Cynical In-the-Know Fantasy

Labeling Frame

• Self as the only one who gets the joke: that everyone is duped by the conspiracy involving race!

• Selective scanning for incongruous details that confirms the conspiracy theory.

The Cynic’s Basic Life Lesson

• Yes, the frame is constructed and in that sense arbitrary and biased, and in that sense a joke.

• But a joke “isn’t just a joke”: it expresses, releases, liberates a desire. Take responsibility for this desire. There’s always an expense.

• Don’t hide away by using in-group, wink-wink, code words and slang. Being cool isn’t the issue.

WORK

TALKING CURE

Centered Self and Other

PLAY

LOVE

Psychotherapy’s Frame

Psychotherapy’s Frame

Inclusive Frame of

Talking Cure

Centered Self and Other

LOVE Letters

Special concern for the person…but through the medium of speech.

No mind-reading or mute pointing allowed!

Trust not the person, but the process of talking.

Psychotherapy’s Frame

Inclusive Frame of

Talking Cure

Centered Self and Other

LOVE Letters

Special concern for the person…but through the medium of speech.

No mind-reading or mute pointing allowed!

Trust not the person, but the process of talking.

WORK of love

Professional interest in subtle details and “blind spots.”

But neither rush to solve the problem,

nor procrastinate and passing the buck.

Passionately commit, risk, be real, be vulnerable to being wrong.

Inclusive Frame of

Talking Cure

Word PLAY

A good interpretation has the same structure as a good joke:

1. Through good timing, it surprises the defenses… 2. It releases and frees a repressed

desire… 3. At an expense—that should be openly paid.

LOVE Letters

Special concern for the person…but through the medium of speech.

No mind-reading or mute pointing allowed!

Trust not the person, but the process of talking.

Centered Self and Other

WORK of love

Professional interest in subtle details and “blind spots.”

But neither rush to solve the problem,

nor procrastinate and passing the buck.

Passionately commit, risk, be real, be vulnerable to being wrong.

Cynic’s In-the-know Fantasy(…but being cool and in the know and funny helps few but

yourself. Own your desire, as your public word.)__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Professional Detective Fantasy(…but being right, having the quick-fix solution helps few but yourself.)______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FramesI. II. III.

Neurotic Cynical Therapy Frame C Frame A/B Frame________ _________ ________________ _________ ________________ _________ ________________ _________ ________________ _________ ________________ _________ ________

C

B A

Dependent Avoidant Obsessive

Borderline

Antisocial Paranoid

Schizoid

SchizotypalHistrionic

Narcissist

Innocent Rescue Fantasy(…but being simply, mutely empathetic and trusting helps few but yourself. Trust not the person but the process.)_______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________

Gardner Fair Ph.D. MFT-I

garderfair@yahoo.com