DISSERTATIONS - 2019

FICTION-MAKING: A WORKSHOP PROPOSAL ON VIOLENCE FOR YOUTH IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW BASED ON ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Ezequiel Nogueira Braga

Advisor: Liliana Liviano Wahba
Key words: Youth in conflict with the law. Violence. Psychological intervention. Moral consciousness. Analytical psychology.
Abstract:To addres s the issue of youth violence in Brazil, the National Policy for Socio-educational Care (Política Nacional de Atendimento Socioeducativo - SINASE) foresees the practice of psychologists with individuals, groups and even families to enable moral reflection and autonomy. The present work proposes a group intervention in the form of a workshop developed upon the theoretical framework of analytical psychology relative to morality and aggressiveness, as well as from a literature review on the topic. The workshop is based on stories of violence told by the youths in which they were not directly involved, but that in some way left an impression on them. Based on these narratives, and in order to provoke the processing of moral consciousness and the recognition of aggressive fantasies, the coordinator provides stimuli that help the group weave considerations and propose imaginary additions to the story. A qualitative case study was conducted. The participants were four male youths 18 to 20 years old serving a socio-educational sentence in semi-confinement; only two completed the entire intervention process. The main unit of analysis was the workshop initiative. The subordinate units of analysis comprised the analysis of group reports – which included the identification, categorization and naming of standards, as proposed by Ezzy (2002) – , of individual narratives and of the scores of the participants in the pre and post-test application of the Scale of Antisocial and Criminal Conducts (Escala de Condutas Antissociais e Delitivas – ECAD) (FORMIGA & GOUVEIA, 2003). The thematic analysis of group accounts yielded twelve themes that articulate the expressions of violence, its consequences, the moral codes that sustain them, the moral conflicts and considerations of the participants, and four thematic axes – "Naturalizing violence", “Possession by madness”, "Conditioned bonds", and "Liminality of violence" – interwoven by the notion of determinism. At the individual level, it was possible to identify defensive mechanisms, codes of belonging and impulsiveness that hinder reflexive processes, in addition to tensions between the collective moral codes and the determinism of violence, with personal feelings of fear, attachment, and empathy, leading to incipient considerations with the recognition of destructive potential. The workshop shows potential as a form of stimulating moral consciousness. It also represents a possible safe space that supports youths involved in situations of violence. The present work is considered valid as a pilot study to be implemented.