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Prisons and the Death Penalty: Possibilities for Transformation
by James Gilligan, M.D., Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D., Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.
"I am persuaded that the institution of prison probably must end. In many respects it is as intolerable within the United States as was the institution of slavery, equally brutalizing to all involved, equally toxic to the social systems, equally subversive of the brotherhood of man, even more costly by some standards, and probably less rational."
– Federal Judge James Doyle, 1971
What might a tranformational perspective offer
in understanding our American prison crisis and our death penalty
practices? The Center for Psychology & Social Change is honored to present a conversation on Prisons and the Death Penalty: Possibilities for Transformation, featuring James Gilligan, M.D., Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D., Robert Jay Lifton, M.D., and John E. Mack, M.D..
In this presentation, held March 3, 2001 in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
we explore perspectives which draw upon depth psychology, psycho-social
approaches, and direct experience within the prison system.
Click below to listen to MP3 audio presentations:
Click here to listen to introduction by John E. Mack, M.D.
Click here to listen to Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D.
Click here to listen to Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.
Click here to listen to James Gilligan, M.D.
Presenter Profiles
James Gilligan, M.D., is a psychiatrist
who was on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School for thirty-four
years. As director of Harvard's Institute of Law and Psychiatry,
he led a team of colleagues from Harvard teaching hospitals in
providing mental health services to Massachusetts prisons and
prison mental health hospitals. In 1991 Dr. Gilligan gave the
Erikson Lectures on "The Roots of Violence" and in
1993 and 1994 he was visiting Fellow at the Institute of Criminology,
Cambridge University, England. His books include Violence:
Our Deadly Epidemic and Its Causes, Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic
and most recently Preventing Violence: Prospects for Tomorrow.
Dr. Gilligan teaches and lectures on violent crime and punishment
throughout the world and is President of the International Association
for Forensic Psychotherapy.
Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D., is a popular national
speaker and consultant on male psychology. He is president of
the Fatherhood Coalition, a nonprofit organization dedicated
to aiding fathers in their relationships with children and spouses,
and teaches therapists in training at Pacifica Graduate Institute
near Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of Angry Young Men: How Parents, Teachers, and Counselors
Can Help Bad Boys Become Good Men, Knights Without Armor: A Practical Guide for
Men in Quest of Masculine Soul, and co-author with Elizabeth
Herron of What Men and Women Really Want.
Robert Jay Lifton, M.D., is the author,
with Greg Mitchell, of the recent Who Owns Death: Capital Punishment, the American
Conscience, and the End of Executions. He is perhaps
the preeminent researcher in the United States on understanding
the darker mysteries of the human mind. Dr. Lifton, who has written
numerous books and articles and studied subjects ranging
from the Nazi doctors to nuclear war and the survivors of Hiroshima,
has a particular interest in the relationship between individual
psychology and historical change, and in problems surrounding
the extreme historical situations of our era. He is co-founder
of the Center for Psychology & Social Change.
John E. Mack, M.D., is professor of psychiatry
at Harvard Medical School. As a child and adult psychoanalyst
he has applied the insights of depth psychology to address the
roots of the Cold War, the global ecological crisis, ethno-nationalism,
and other collective phenomena that inform our understanding
of human identity. Dr. Mack is a founder,
with Dr. Lifton, of the Center for Psychology & Social
Change.
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