Date of Award

Winter 3-22-2014

Document Type

Doctoral Research Paper

Degree Name

Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Michael Karson

Second Advisor

Judith E. Fox

Third Advisor

Jennifer Gafford

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords

Goffman, Severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI), Performance theory, Stigma, Prison, Mentally ill inmates

Abstract

Deinstitutionalization of psychiatric hospitals, which occurred in the 1970's, led to an overwhelming number of mentally ill individuals within jails and prisons. In fact, correctional facilities have become the mainline providers of mentally ill inmates; however, these facilities' primary form of intervention is psychotropic medication. Although beneficial in some instances, when viewed through the lens of Goffman's theories of performance and stigma, simply providing medication promotes the role of mental patient. Arguably, within correctional facilities, medication management assists in maintaining security in the institution (i.e., external change); however, this prohibits the inmate from internal change, which might otherwise be facilitated via a secure therapeutic relationship. Given the stripping of one's former identity upon entrance to correctional facilities, performing the role of mental patient may be an enticing way to serve a sentence. In other words, it is a stigmatized identity; thus, less demanding. This paper will explore changing society's view of what is normal in hopes of de-stigmatizing the role of mental patient. This would include accurately identifying those with organic mental illness and those who are behaviorally motivated, with an emphasis on providing a therapeutic environment centered upon secure attachments between patient and provider. Keywords: Goffman; severe and persistent mental illness; performance theory; stigma; and prison.

Copyright Date

3-13-2014

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Kaley JoAnne Raskin

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

43 pgs

File Size

199 KB

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