The Assembly of a Criminal Self

Abstract

Beginning with the experience of working with men in prison and others who have considerable prison experience, all of whom have long criminal histories, and considering Aotearoa’s relatively high rate of imprisonment, particularly of indigenous people, this paper attempts to describe a theory of self as a performative assembly, rather than as a developmental achievement, which is the dominant view in psychotherapy. In doing so, a brief history of the self from the beginning of the 20th century is presented, illustrating how the self changes, not just in an individual subjectivity, but between eras in the history of Western society. This perspective is used to understand how a “criminal self” might develop as a product of incarceration and as a natural extension of the self in the neoliberal era, and why it might prove resistant to psychotherapeutic intervention. Drawing on the work of Foucault, Rose, and Butler, among others, the concept of “intoxicating performativity” is introduced. The role of anger as an antidote to fragmentation is explored. Some thoughts are added about why indigenous people are overrepresented in prison compared to the population at large.