Abstract
In this paper, I’ll discuss my clinical work with people who, sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder, have now returned home to live life after serving life, and explore their efforts to reckon with what they have done (and, frequently, what was done to them) despite being confined in traumatogenic institutions that functioned to thwart such growth. Using case material, I’ll reflect on the ways in which a psychodynamic approach can help navigate the overwhelm of violent crimes and violent punishments, and the unresolved trauma that usually precedes both, and offer ideas about how we can and why we should develop our collective capacities to bear and to repair - in the hopes of transforming the trauma that incarceration reenacts.
Objectives
1. Describe the proliferation of life sentences in the United States and its disproportionate impact on Black people, poor people, and people of color.
2. Identify some of the reasons, from a psychoanalytic perspective, why people who commit murder and are sentenced to life in prison are driven to understand and transform the harm they’ve caused.
3. Explain why working with people who have endured and perpetrated violence can be challenging for clinicians.
Bio
Elizabeth (Beth) Kita is a clinical social worker in public/private practice in San Francisco, California. In her private practice, she works primarily with people contending with complex posttraumatic stress; her work in a public clinic is with people who are returning to the community following lengthy periods of incarceration. She obtained her MSW from UC Berkeley and her PhD from Smith College. Beth teaches in the MSW program at UC Berkeley, and is the Co-Chair of the Coalition for Clinical Social Work at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.
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