The Assembly of a Criminal Self

Seán Manning; Dave Nicholls

doi:10.9791/ajpanz.2020.11

Seán Manning
Dave Nicholls

DOI: https://doi.org/10.9791/ajpanz.2020.11

Keywords: self, crime, prison, Foucault, performativity, identity

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.

Author Biographies

Seán Manning

Seán Manning has been working with crime, addiction and violence in men for over 40 years, as social worker and psychotherapist. This paper arises from his doctoral studies on the assembly of criminality. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he has three adult children and two grandchildren. He has held a number of offices in professional associations and is a former president of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists but recently has been working on a social life and has almost overcome a tendency to be argumentative. His

limited abilities with Māori and Spanish are a lot better than his command of Irish. His addiction to collecting musical instruments is almost under control though his ability to play them lags behind. He is interested in how psychotherapy works and what happens in the human brain in the construction and reconstruction of the self. His published work includes reports on the effectiveness and the essentially secular nature of psychotherapy, on antisocial behaviour, on the effectiveness of family violence programmes, and.a critical review of ideas about the unconscious.

Dave Nicholls

Dave Nicholls is a Professor of Critical Physiotherapy in the School of Clinical Sciences at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a physiotherapist, lecturer, researcher and writer, with a passion for critical thinking in and around the physical therapies. David is the founder of the Critical Physiotherapy Network, an organisation that promotes the use of cultural studies, education, history, philosophy, sociology, and a range of other disciplines in the study of the profession’s past, present and future. He is also co-founder and chair of the

International Physiotherapy History Association Executive, and founding Executive member of the Environmental Physiotherapy Association. David’s own research work focuses on the critical history of physiotherapy and considers how physiotherapy might need to adapt to the changing economy of health care in the 21st century. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, many as first author. He was co-editor on the first collection of critical physiotherapy writings — Manipulating Practices — and he is lead editor for the follow-up titled Mobilising Knowledge, which is due out in 2020. He is also very active on social media, writing nearly 700 blogposts for criticalphysio.net over the last 5 years. David has taught in physiotherapy programmes in the UK and New Zealand for over 25 years and has presented his work all around the world. The End of Physiotherapy — the first book-length critical history of physiotherapy, and written by David — was published by Routledge in mid-2017, and a second sole-authored book titled Physiotherapy Otherwise, will be published in 2021.