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Criminality and Psychopathology - Treatment for the Guilty

NCJ Number
89269
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1983) Pages: 44-49
Author(s)
J M Bush
Date Published
1983
Length
6 pages
Annotation
A residential treatment program which focuses on subjective patterns of the client's experience and which uses self-directed methods of cognitive and behavioral change can have positive results for inmates for whom irresponsible thinking and acting is a form of psychopathology.
Abstract
The rigid distinction between pathology and irresponsibility which is deeply rooted in both popular and scientific consciousness has prevented a realistic understanding of the psychopathology of criminal offenders. The tendency has been to both overpunish and overexcuse offenders. For many offenders, their experience of life is self-oriented and subjective, and they tend to relate to and evaluate external circumstances solely in terms of their impact upon their own private states of feeling. In this form of pathology, the cognitive and experiential processes not only remain relatively underdeveloped, they become diverted to the task of creating and maintaining an illusory and wishful experience of reality. In the treatment process with such clients, it is important that they initiate the effort to change, which in itself is the seed for adult autonomy. Incarceration, particularly repetitive incarceration, can be the stimulus for the desire to change. Institutionalization should provide a total therapeutic environment for such offenders. Social cooperation, mutual respect, and rational approach to problem solving can be learned by being practiced. The force of a treatment culture combined with professional clinical techniques and supervision of the change process can bring growth in responsible thinking and behavior. Five references are listed.