Haraszewski
Blog #1660
3-16-20

Comment Reply
(Reply ID 6k99)

Got your comment... I wonder if you'll see this reply? I still don't know whether commenters are notified of bloggers' replies. Anyway, thanks so much for the long and thoughtful message! It really makes all the difference in the world to know ppl are reading these posts. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to write them, mental energy I just don't have much of anymore, after years of futile legal battles and the steady erosion of friends & family. But when I know someone is seeing this stuff... Suddenly, the energy seems more available. =) Thanks.
So hey... I had to check my list of names & intros from F.O.W. just to be sure there was only one "D" over there :P. Seems so. Also, I was wracking my brain trying to think of what I wrote that could've prompted your comments about counsellors... I didn't recall anything in that "Worthwhile Life" post, or any others, that would've caused you to talk about your experiences in that area. I think I figured it out though... did Kyla comment on the "worthwhile" entry? I bet she did. I recall she wrote me 2 or 4 times about her interest in prison counselling. I REALLY appreciated your comments & insights about that... I wish Kyla could've seen what you wrote there. It made a lot of sense to me, and for sure had a ring of truth. I should tell you, when I first replied to Kyla, I really misunderstood her... I had in mind the prison "counsellors" who are more like high school counsellors, not therapists at all, not ppl there to help with your psychological or social issues, but just basically bureaucrats employed to move you through the system -high school or prison- checking off boxes and telling you what needs to be done if you want to get to step or level X: take chem if you want to do physics next year; get on the "clerk's list" if you want to work in the "program office"... crap like that. Paper shufflers. I didn't realize right away that she wanted to be a mental health professional.
Damn, out of space! Anyway, your insights about the coercive aspects of even voluntary programs really stood out to me. Also the "reciting" of what staff wants to hear"... I call it "the script", and I really get down when it seems some inmates start internalizing the most self-negating parts... I see the effort to go home turn from pragmatics to genuine self-loathing in a lot of ppl. =( Your comment about how such control over others' basic life situations taints the relationship... so true! Yet I hear it discussed so rarely... damn near never. =( Out of space! I may post a piece on "brainwashing" soon, if I didn't already, or send it to F.O.W. BTW, re. FOW (lol!) I hope I can get my responses in on time. VERY overwhelmed w/ legal stuff now. =(

PS. = Your analysis of the job of psyches here, to "encourage ppl to adjust to fucked up circumstances rather than removing the fucked up circumstances... So true! Thanks for recognizing. Also your S/N, "gay4abolition"... lol!! Reminds me of a homemade shirt I wore in college: "Sexual Apartheid is so Gay" =)