Where have you seen Becker’s ideas being most directly related to the diagnosis and treatment of deviant behavior?

I really agree with Becker’s analysis that ultimately, psychopathology (and Freud also put it this way) is understood best by examining the psychopathology of everyday life. The more severe people that I see in incarceration centers have a more concentrated and easily discernible version of the illness that we all have: being overwhelmed by the reality of being an individual in a body, in the world, for a finite period of time, and understanding that our littleness, our fleeting existence, is conditioned by death and the boundaries of the body.

With extreme sexual pathology and aggression, I think it’s useful to understand that the same factors that are motivating everybody are involved in these cases as well. We are all grappling with the basic question, “How do we hold on to our symbolic identity in light of our mortality?” We know we’re going to lose our bodily identity, but we strive to have safety and security in this symbolic identity; Becker calls this striving the immortality project. Oddly enough I think with many of these sex offenders who have many victims, this is a kind of immortality project for them. Often they were victims themselves as children, so they know that experience, and it’s a way for them to reach out beyond their weakness and their smallness. They just don’t know how to do this in a way that is benign and non-destructive. For some reason, the more benign ways have not been open to them or have been closed. When doing any kind of treatment or assessment, I think the really broad, high-level view that Becker helps bring to human affairs is necessary.

Can any of Becker’s ideas shed light on prevention of psychopathology?

You can’t prevent mental illness unless you remove self-consciousness. I read an article in Nature magazine some years back and the scientists had a theory, a very Beckerian theory, that self-reflective consciousness and individuality probably have evolved more than once on this planet, but each time it led to a self-aborting species. That’s what makes humans so unique—not that consciousness happened, but that we’ve survived it (thus far, anyway). Our unconscious enables us to put aside the fact that we’re anxious and going to die. People who have mental illness, however, have less of an ability to compartmentalize. They’re staring at the starkness of loneliness, and fear of rejection, and death, and all of these things all the time.

That’s what makes humans so unique – not that consciousness happened, but that we’ve survived it.

Based on your understanding of Becker, are there changes to U.S. criminal justice policies or practices that you think could make a difference to those involved – whether victim, offender, or jailer?

Yes. I think one thing that happens is that the sickest people are treated by the least trained people. The healthiest people out here in society are treated by the best-trained. And that’s a real problem. The other thing that I think is worth mentioning is the death sentence. Our culture gives sentences that are death sentences, even if they’re not “technically” death sentences. Felons are sentenced to a social death, both from the practical aspect of how long they’re going be in prison, and from the stigma of having been an offender. In some states, felons are perpetually banned from exercising the right to vote. In one form or another, criminal justice-related disenfranchisement affects almost 6 million people, with African Americans almost 5 times more likely to be affected. We feel that these people deserve a social death, so we sentence them to ridiculous prison sentences that no other society imposes. Or, once back in society, we remove from them any dignity as a citizen, permanently. If we acknowledged that what we’re really trying to do, unconsciously, is kill these people off, our attitudes and actions would have to change.

Do you think it’s important or beneficial for society to have more empathetic views of criminal offenders?

Yes, I think it is. Offenders are somebody’s brother, mother, father, sister, daughter. They come from families. They are a part of society. Often times with sex offenders, usually one out of three was also a victim themselves as a child. There is not a simple dichotomy between victims and offenders; there is a big overlap. But the perception that these people don’t count, that they are too dangerous, too threatening, they need to be controlled, that they’re “other,” means that stigma can become quickly attached to them and they can be used as a pawn in our political struggles.

What actions can we take now to continue enabling progress?

I think progress depends on the extent that we can understand the process of othering, which is a powerful yet subtle process; usually by the time that it becomes obvious, the damage is already done. People need to understand the impulse that we all have to “other” the offender. This is accompanied by an underlying desire to believe that if they didn’t exist, other problems and issues that threaten us [and ultimately death itself] wouldn’t exist either. But the thing is, the problems in criminal justice, they are basic human problems. And the more that can be conveyed on the social and political front, the better.

I believe understanding that people are trying to be somebody is key. For someone who is destructive, it might be all about finding a role that is more positive for that person. Lastly, I think making a habit, consciously, of making people aware that they are cared for would be helpful. This includes staff, therapists, offenders, etc. Whenever you feel it, whenever you can express it, don’t hesitate. Of course, this doesn’t mean making promises that you can’t keep or expressing feelings that you don’t have, but a little care goes a long way. I always make sure that the person who I’m evaluating gets their lunch that day. Some offenders don’t have money and otherwise wouldn’t eat that day. That level of basic caring shows dignity and respect, and the only cost is my waiting. In all of these settings, there are ways to show that you care, even at the basic level of respect or dignity towards the other person.