Locked in role: A psychotherapist within the social defence system of a prison

Abstract

Abstract This article looks at the psychodynamics of an institution by using a particular method - a method derived from object relations psychoanalysis. Conclusions are drawn by inference from the experience of the relationship with an ‘object’. In the psychoanalytical setting the analyst's own response is known as the ‘counter-transference’; and that experience of working with a patient can be a rich source of evidence about the patient's personality. Similarly, the psychotherapist in the prison is in contact with a human environment, the various groups within the institution, and the individuals within those groups. He experiences them; and can reflect on them in the same way as he might in a therapeutic session, so that the culture of the prison may emerge, organizing his relationship with his work. My experience as a visiting psychotherapist in a prison is the springboard for the explorations in this article.2 It explores the possible use of this ‘counter-transference’ to the prison institution as the object to which the psychotherapist relates in his work. Therefore various aims coincide here: to work through my own experience; to understand a prison; to explore the applicability of psychoanalytical ideas beyond the consulting room; to help others working in prisons to organize their own experience there; and possibly to promote initiatives in developing new kinds of penal institutions.