Changing Violent Minds: Discursive Correction and Resistance in the Cognitive Treatment of Violent Offenders in Prison

Abstract

Based upon observation in “Cognitive Self-Change” (CSC) treatment groups in a Vermont prison, this paper examines the dynamics of coercion and resistance in the cognitive social control of violent offenders. The program is mandated for violent offenders to correct the “cognitive distortions” that incite their violence. CSC relies upon particular constructions of criminal minds, responsibility, victimization, and choice that become the heart of rhetorical struggles between program facilitators and the inmates who resist the process of self-examination and change. CSC demonstrates Foucault's (1983) idea that dominant discourses (such as notions rooted in psychology) enact governmental power by encouraging self-reflection and self-regulation among citizens. Psychological paradigms about criminal personalities are imposed on inmates; their resistance to these concepts represents an opposing rhetoric and also demonstrates the subtly coercive context in which CSC takes place. Inmate objections are absorbed into and help sustain the dominant discourse about criminality. Examining the implications of coercion and resistance highlights the repressive potential in language.