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


Fearful, Anxious, Neurotic Breakdowns

C

B A


Paranoid

Schizoid

Schizotypal

C

B A


Paranoid

Schizoid

Schizotypal

Psychotic Breaks

C

B A


Histrionic

Borderline

Antisocial

NarcissistParanoid

Schizoid

Schizotypal

C

B A


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!!!!!

???


White Ego

Cynics

Cluster C: Dependent White


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

Professional Detectives


White Ego

Cynics



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



White Ego

Cynics



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



White Ego

Cynics



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



Cynics



• Laughing at and guilt-tripping all narcissistic naiveté.


White Ego


Cynics



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


White Ego


Cynics




• 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


Cynics

Cluster C: Obsessive White


• Ignorant, at risk, vulnerable peoples needing help.

White Ego

Naïve Innocents

Cynics




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

White Ego

Naïve Innocents


Cynics



• Laughing at and guilt-tripping the repeated failures.

White Ego

• Angry about not being really helped.

Naïve Innocents


Cynics



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

White Ego

Naïve Innocents

Cynical In-the-Know Fantasy?

Frame?


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.

»???



Cynics



• 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.


False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics

Cluster B: Borderline White

Labeling White Frame

• No one understands me! Except maybe you?!



False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics



• White envy

• White exoticization


Innocent Rescue Fantasy Professional

Detectives

False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics



• 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


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

Cluster B: Antisocial

Labeling Frame

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


Naïve Innocents


Cynics




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


Cynics




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


False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics


Labeling Frame

• Others’ loving vitality as too overwhelming and exhausting!


False Labeled

Self

In-the-Know Cynics


Labeling Frame

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


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


Cluster A: Paranoid White

Labeling Frame


False Labeled

Self


Cluster A: Paranoid White

Labeling Frame

• Others’ loving vitality as too invasive and threatening!


False Labeled

Self


Labeling Frame

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



False Labeled

Self


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


Inclusive Frame of

Talking Cure


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.


Inclusive Frame of

Talking Cure


LOVE Letters




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





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


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

[email protected]

therapeutic challenges within the antisocial framing of incarceration and race

Documents

race slide

protected ego slide

c ba neurotic frame

c ba rescuer

cynical frame frame

white norms

unacceptable abnormal

c ba fearful