Evening Seminar

Identity psychology in probation: implications for

working with personality disorder

Shadd Maruna │ Professor of Criminology │Queen's University, Belfastand

Emma Cluley │ Managing Editor │ Probation Journal

14 May, 2019

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Identity Psychology in Probation: Implications for Working with Personality Disorder

Shadd Maruna

s.maruna@qub.ac.uk

Twitter: @criminology

Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their

Lives (APA Books)

Desistance’s 15 Minutes of Fame

in UK Criminal Justice

Widely cited in the UK Ministry of

Justice’s 2011 Green Paper

Merseyside Probation has convened

a Desistance Planning Team (2014)

HM High Down Prison declared itself

a “desistance-focused prison” (2013)

Avon and Somerset Probation Trust

recruited a dedicated Desistance

Development Officer (2013)

Yep

Dan P. McAdams (Northwestern Uni)

McAdams’ Personality Theory

Three levels or domains of personality:

a) dispositional traits (“having”)

b) personal goals/strivings (“doing”), and

c) identity narratives (“making”).

Our stories have to be “routinely created and sustained in the reflexive activities

of the individual” (Giddens, 1991, p. 52).

“Eventually, the culturally shaped cognitive and

linguistic processes that guide the self-telling of

life narratives achieve the power to structure

perceptual experience, to organize memory, to

segment and purpose-build the very ‘events’ of a

life. In the end, we become the autobiographical

narratives by which we ‘tell about’ our lives”

--Jerome Bruner, Harvard

“Father” of the Cognitive Revolution

Self-Narratives in Psychology

Desisting Active

Ex-Offenders Offenders

55 Sample size 34

21% Percent female 26%

30 Median age 30

3 Years in prison 3

15 Age at 1st arrest 14

20 Age 1st prison 20

67% Left school at 16 56%

3 years Time since last offence 4-5 hours

Liverpool Desistance Study(see Maruna, 2001, “Making Good”)

Condemnation Scripts

(Active Offenders)

Versus

Redemption Scripts

(Desisting Group)

Two Views of a Brick Wall

The establishment of a good “core self” involving a set

of fundamental values and imposing a continuity on a

discontinuous narrative;

A clear life purpose and sense of control over one’s

destiny;

The desire to “give something back,” especially to the

next generation.

This script is a core part of the desisting person’s identity (hence, personality)

Core Elements of the

‘Redemption Script’

What is Personality Disorder?

“A personality disorder is a way of thinking, feeling and

behaving that deviates from the expectations of the culture,

causes distress or problems functioning, and lasts over

time” (APA)

alternatively…

“The patients psychiatrists dislike” (Lewis & Appleby, 1988).

The 3 P’s

It’s not PD unless the symptoms are…

Problematic – unusual and causing

distress to self or others

Persistent – starting in adolescence and

continuing into adulthood

Pervasive – affecting a number of

different areas in the person’s life

Personality disorder symptoms as

problematic extensions of normal

personality traits

Signs and symptoms Frequent mood swings

Very hostile attitudes towards others

Difficulty controlling behaviour

High levels of suspiciousness

An absence of emotions

Stormy relationships

Callousness

Very superior attitudes towards others

Little interest in making friends

Intense emotional outbursts

A need for instant gratification

Alcohol or substance misuse

Consistent problems with employment

Deliberate self-harm

Constantly seeking approval

Preoccupation with routine

Versus Mental Illness

Personality disorders are conditions in which an

individual differs significantly from an average person, in

terms of how they think, perceive, feel or relate to others

Mental illness is a condition that affects a person's

thinking, feeling or mood. Such conditions may affect

someone's ability to relate to others and function each

day

From APA

Mental illness is common. In a given year:

nearly one in five (19 percent) adults experience

some form of mental illness

one in 24 (4.1 percent) has a serious mental illness*

one in 12 (8.5 percent) has a diagnosable substance

use disorder

Mental illness is treatable. The vast majority of

individuals with mental illness continue to function in

their daily lives

Overlaps and Confusions

Severe mental illnesses are thought to have an

identifiable onset & can be treated with medication

Controversial & mis-diagnosis is a common problem

Many people diagnosed with personality disorders

also meet the criteria for mental illnesses such as

depression or schizophrenia. Pers disorder thought to

be a major risk factor/predictor of mental illness

DSM-V’s Three Clusters

Cluster A (the "odd, eccentric" cluster);Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal Personality Disorders

Cluster B (the "dramatic, emotional,

erratic" cluster); and,Antisocial, Histrionic, Narcissistic, Borderline Personality Disorders

Cluster C (the "anxious, fearful" cluster).Dependent, Avoidant, Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorders

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a pattern of

disregard for and violation of the rights of others. Symptoms

include:

Disregard for society's laws

Violation of the physical or emotional rights of others

Lack of stability in job and home life

Irritability and aggressiveness

Lack of remorse

Consistent irresponsibility

Recklessness, impulsivity

Deceitfulness

Who is the Psychopath?

“Psychopaths are social predators who charm,

manipulate and ruthlessly plow their way through life,

leaving behind a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered

expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in

conscience and in feelings for others they selfishly take

what they want and do as they please, violating social

norms and expectations without the slightest sense of

guilt or regret” (Hare, 1993: xi).

NOT to be confused with…

Psychopathology -- the scientific study of mental

disorders; or: mental distress or the manifestation of

behaviours and experiences which may be indicative

of mental illness or psychological impairment

Psychosis is characterized by an impaired

relationship with reality. And it is a symptom of

serious mental disorders. People who are psychotic

may have either hallucinations or delusions

What is the PCL-R for?

What use is it?

The PCL-R has been ordained as “an unparalleled...measure

for making risk assessments” (Salekin, Rogers & Sewell, 1996, p. 212).

“The single most important clinical construct in the criminal

justice system” (Hare, 1998, p. 99)

“The single best predictor of recidivism that has ever existed” (Hercz, 2001, p. 28).

s.maruna@qub.ac.uk

Big Claims for Predictiveness

Hart (1998, p. 133) even contended that “Psychopathy is

such a robust and important risk factor for violence that

failure to consider it may constitute professional

negligence”

“Any parole board whose decision does not take into

account current knowledge about psychopathy and

recidivism runs the risk of making a potentially disastrous

mistake” (Hare, 1990, p. 15).

Coid et al (2009) Prisoner Study

Cohort study of 1396 prisoner outcomes found that “Actuarial

instruments requiring no training to administer performed as well as

personality assessment” (Coid et al, 2009: 337)

“This would imply that [for male prisoners] the effort involved in

applying structured risk-assessment instruments, some of which

require considerable time to administer and expensive training, is not

justified if the intention is merely to stratify individuals into levels of risk”

(Coid et al, 2009: 345)

What Do Clinicians Say?

From Hans Toch:

“I have myself been associated with prison

inmates and violent offenders most of my working

life (Toch, 1992b, Toch & Adams, 1989). I can

testify...that I recall not a single instance in which

my understanding of an offender I have known

would have benefited from adjudging the person

a psychopath”

Reality and Construction

“Psychopathic disorder does not exist. So often,

diseases are conceptualized as real things that exist

inside their hosts. Yet diseases do not exist in the

way in which patients exist, or in the way in which a

bacterium exists” (Gunn, 1998: 33).

Simourd, Bonta, Andrews and Hoge (1991) “engaged in what some may

have considered heresy by suggesting that the concept of psychopathy

might be a myth” (Gendreau et al, 2002: 400; See also Blackburn, 1993)

PROS & CONSWorking with Personality Disorder from an

Identity Psychology Perspective

Personality Disorder as an Identity

“Consensus Statement for People with Complex

Mental Health Difficulties who are diagnosed with a

Personality Disorder” (MIND, 2017)

* Amorphous

* Stigmatising

* Politicised

2001 Labour Party Manifesto: protect citizens from ‘…the

most dangerous offenders of all…i.e. those with severe

personality disorder.’

Formulation:Instead of “What is wrong with you?” ask, “What happened to you?

“The process of making sense of a person’s

difficulties in the context of their relationships,

social circumstances, life events, and the sense

that they have made of them. It is a bit like a

personal story or narrative that a psychologist or

other professional draws up with an individual and,

in some cases, their family and carers”

(Johnstone, 2012).

Two Components of Case Formulation

(1) A plausible explanation for the patient's symptoms,

in the form of a conceptual scheme or even a myth,

which provides a rationale for…

(2) the prescription of a ritual or other type of procedure

for resolving them. Recognising the clear link

between personality patterns and early life trauma

(Frank & Frank, 1991)

Dan P. McAdams (Northwestern Uni)

An Archaeology of Hope

“Narrative is not a cure, but it is a method, a path

toward redemption. Redemption lies in…a better

understanding – an improved epistemology –

including the development of a talent for recognizing

counterfeit, seeing through duplicity, and resisting

snares and seductions” (O’Reilly, 1997, p. 65).

“Inside the Mind of the Psychopath”

“The psychopath is portrayed as “unvaryingly bad in

bland and predictable ways… Psychopaths are

essentially crude, semi-human cut-outs with no

histories, advancing from infancy to mature evil

without passing through the usual stages of

personhood” (Jalava et al. 2015: 178)

“Since psychopathy is a perjorative label, honest and open

encounters with subjects of the classification are precluded”

(Toch, 1998)

Self-Narratives and the OPD

The narrative domain of personality, therefore,

represents a dynamic target for therapeutic treatment(see Blagden et al., 2016; Ellis & Bowen, 2017; Preston, 2015;

Stevens, 2012).

Adshead, Ferrito and Bose (2015): the overarching

aim of offender rehabilitation is to assist the individual

to develop a prosocial new narrative for him or herself

(see also Fonaghy’s Mentalisation Based Treatment

(MBT)

Identity psychology in probation: Implications for

working with personality disorder Emma Cluley

Managing Editor, Probation Journal

Probation Journal

OPD pathway: An outline and the evidence

‘Bearing witness’ to trauma and supporting desistance

Avoiding errors of logic: applying psychological theory to practice

Individual and organisational responsibilities

Implications for practice

Owned by Napo –Trade Union and Professional

Association and published by Sage

Good practice, high quality CJ research about

theory and practice of working with offenders

Editorial Board – mixture of practitioners and

academics

International and national readership – accessed

by approximately 175 countries

74, 883 full text downloads in 2017

Probation Journal

General practice and identity

Attachment and offending

Working in Approved premises

Desistance and sexual offending

Working with harm high harm

Vicarious trauma

Victimisation and violent offending

Suicide, self harm and supervision

OPD and personality disorder

Staff competency and

personality disorder

Using formulations

PIPES and APs

Working with personality

disturbance and learning

from OPD pathway

Working with high harm

Contracting and

collaborative working

Development of the Offender Personality

Disorder Pathway: A summary of the

underpinning evidence (Skett and Lewis 2019)

Evidence base for the OPD pathway

Combining mental health and criminal justice

research to reduce serious offending

Trauma focused, relational and holistic

PIPEs TCs and formulations

Offender Personality Disorder Pathway

The value of ‘bearing witness’ to desistance

(Anderson 2016)

Why should we ‘bear witness to trauma’?

Moral and political responsibility

Humanity

Understanding individual psychological identities &

supporting the desistance journey

Acceptance, loyalty, trust – relational goods

What does ‘bearing witness’ look like?

Not condoning or accepting behaviours

Minor adjustments to practice

Responding to trauma and

supporting desistance journeys

Practice with personality disorder offenders: The importance of avoiding errors of logic (Ramsden

and Lowton 2014)

Applying psychological theory and validating

rather than reacting

Understanding the attachment style in room

Understanding erratic and compliant behaviours

Relating in a way that creates safety

Language as a coping strategy – ‘listening to the

music behind the words’

Avoiding errors of logic

Central to [the OPD pathway] is understanding both mental health and

offending behaviour. Practitioners need to see where there may be a link

between the two…that underpins both offending and the persistent, and

pervasive problems. Neither health nor the criminal justice system alone

can attend to these factors, hence the joint responsibility of the OPD

pathway. Skett & Lewis 2019:10)

Whatever the behaviour of the client and the emotions evoked in the

supervisor the most important factor will be the supervisor’s capacity to

enter the ‘logical word of the client so that they have a capacity to interpret

what is happening and bring meaning to the interaction for the client

(Ramsden and Lowton (2014: 155)

‘Bearing witness’ situates offending within a whole life which includes both

victimisation and offending, emphasising our shared humanity,

acknowledging shared culpability and offering hope that we can live

together. In contrast, ‘turning away’ risks turning relational breaches into

irreparable relational chasms’ (Anderson 2016: 421)

Individual and organisationalresponsibilities

• An investigation into competency for working with personality disorder and

team climate in the probation service (Shaw and Minoudis et al 2012)

• Prisoners’ motivations for therapeutic community treatment: In search of a

‘different’ approach to offender rehabilitation (Stevens 2013)

• Psychologically informed and planned environments: A community perspective

(Castledine 2015)

• Identifying personality disorder disturbance in the Lincolnshire Personality

Disorder Pathway: How do offenders compare to the London pilot? (Nichols

and Duster et al 2016)

• How working with psychologists has influenced probation practice: Attempting

to capture some of the impact and the learning from the Offender Personality

Disorder Pathway project (Ramsden and Joyes et al 2016)

• Incorporating and adapting shared experiences of mindfulness into a service for

men who have committed serious offences and who have significant

personality difficulties (Baker and Young et al 2016)

• Managing challenging residents: Putting the Knowledge and Understanding

Framework into practice in Approved Premises (Bettles and Rich et al 2016)

• The ultimate shock absorber: Probation officers’ experiences of working with

male service users on the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway (Fellowes

2018)

• The use of psychologically-informed warning letters in probation for high-risk

clients with personality difficulties (Harvey and Sefton 2018)

• An evidence-based approach: underpinning evidence in forming the Offender

Personality Disorder pathway (Skett & Lewis 2019)

Emma Cluley, Managing Editor, Probation Journal. prbjournal@btinternet.com;

http://prb.sagepub.com @ProbationJnl

Any Questions ?

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