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Inside the captive psyche

HUMAN 2018: The Work
In California, there is a program that allows the detained zone of peace of mind.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Society can never forgive certain crimes. But can the criminals learn to forgive themselves? When I first saw The Work, it had been less than a day since I had returned from another visit to the United States. Never before has a country fascinated me so much – a people I have so many prejudices against, the nation that is the axis for any discussion of media, democracy, liberalism, welfare and the rest of the posts on the continuous list of future concerns, both in social media and on everyone's lips. The fact that I have crossed the Atlantic five times in the last five years to observe and become part of the notion of America did not occur to me until I sat and watched The Work. On the screen in front of me was a group of people crying together in a prison, as a consummation of the hundred-year-old teardown of the American dream.

Land of Liberty. Liberalism, seen as billboards with anti-abortion advertising and "aggressive lawyers specialized in injury-compensation"; casinos, mega churches and double shifts for seven dollars an hour; beggars who go from trolley to trolley on the subway and loudly announce their personal history before asking for help; pregnant young women lying on the street under dirty blankets and sleeping next to an improvised cardboard sign; the invisible hand that builds skyscraper after skyscraper in big cities; not least, tax-financed, private prisons filled with non-white men who are raised in gang environments. Little is more unfair than this freedom.

"The Land of the Free" has the world's second highest percentage of prisoners per capita, topping the total statistics with 2,3 million inmates – half a million more than China.

But only the latter example is actually shown in the film, unless the rest is implied. If one type of documentary in the last decade has not been in deficit, it is the one dealing with the American prison system. Of course, this is not without reason. "The Land of the Free" has the world's second highest percentage of prisoners per capita, topping the total statistics with 2,3 million inmates – half a million more than China. The overrepresentation of non-white men as well as endless cases of police violence and structural racism make the US prison a subject that can never be explored deeply enough. The angle of incidence i The Work is such a refreshing feature in the category, as it shows a little-known form of rehabilitation that has been used for the past 17 years in Folsom Prison, California, among other places. Here we follow three free men who, in consultation with a guidance therapist, undergo a four-day intensive group therapy together with prison inmates.


Closed ward, high-intensity treatment.
As the title suggests, rehabilitation is not a dance on roses, but hard work. In addition to being a post in the social debate and a panorama of sad fates, Jairus McLeary's debut debut is an intensive study of the psyche. Here are the free and imprisoned side by side with therapeutic intentions – the former to detach from a routine and static life, the latter to cope with severe trauma. One of the confrontations ends up with two inmates hugging each other hard while forgetting the microphone hanging on the shirt – they probably forgot everything else going on around them at that moment. As if the words, tears and hiccups were not enough, you hear a thunderous heartbeat, and how the pulse gradually decreases while remaining in mutual embrace. Like one of the participants, I can say that despite meeting this with skepticism, the dam finally broke.

Do not judge the convicted. Since an hour and a half documentary necessarily consists of a carefully curated selection of recordings, one can get the impression of conversation therapy as outrageously effective. It is only a minute or two from the person beginning to tell about himself until he breaks down in disillusioned cry and self-knowledge. One would almost think that the Norwegian prison system could have had something to learn from the American, although the seance may at times be reminiscent of a revival meeting in an evangelical church, with associated spasms and rage. In a scene where eight men are struggling to hold down one who has reached the climax of treatment, if you can call it something like that, the therapist shouts: "It's in you! It> s in you! » It has elements of Hollywood exorcism as well as classical psychoanalysis. Perhaps there is a shortcut from the comfort zone of macho culture to vulnerable self-insight via the American cultural industry's preconceived notions of psychotherapy. The striking desire to be rehabilitated through honest self-examination testifies that this method touches on something significant in those involved. One of the insights the group gains is that criminals who have all been convicted by a judicial system do not need the verdict from us, do not need our opinions about them – least of all the individual needs his self-condemnation. Some criminals are ill, and many, probably the majority, are injured. All tell of absent or dysfunctional fathers, lack of care and harsh survival conditions throughout their upbringing. Successful rehabilitation requires, among other things, that the inmate stops punishing himself for his parents' mistakes. No one should further punish someone who is already serving a sentence.

The deep surface. One who is visiting the United States for the first time may, like me, be surprised at how similar American society is to all the impressions and representations that until then have only been obtained from the media. In the United States, the distinction between representation and reality has long since been dissolved, as is also heard when prison inmates issue stereotypical upbringings through a scenic, almost theatrical series of monologues. Is this still a documentary, or is it fiction? Is the reality of liberalism just another popular cultural product? These are questions that can be asked throughout the film – and through an entire visit to the states.

The film will be shown at Human IDFF in Oslo from 7 to 13 March

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