Why Do They Hate Us?

Abstract

Recently, I have been doing fieldwork and interviews in a distressed U.K. prison that is particularly infamous for a particular unit—a kind of “heavy” squad called in to contain violence when there is trouble inside. The group has been involved in a number of recent scandals and lawsuits involving their treatment of prisoners, and indeed, in almost all of the interviews I have done with prisoners, they mention this unit as the most problematic group of staff in the prison. Any guess what group of staff the prisoners identify as being next on the list as the second most feared in the prison? The psychology unit. As someone trained (and steeped) in psychology, I am always disheartened to learn of the low regard in which so many of prisoners and ex-prisoners hold our field. That is probably understating the case. Some prisoners—not all but not a small percentage either—seem to harbor deep and passionate hatred for psychology and all things psychological (see Thomas-Peter, 2006; Warr, 2007). Cambridge University researcher Ben Crewe (2009) captures this feeling extremely well in his extensive interviews with prisoners in England. One long-term prisoner for instance told him,