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