5. The dynamics of the system of relations between minors and the mental states they experience.

Lecture



The emergence and development of deviations and deviant behavior in places of social isolation are essentially associated with changes in the system of relationships and the dynamics of mental states experienced by minors. The use of compulsory measures of upbringing and criminal punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty are differently perceived, evaluated and experienced by various groups of adolescents and young people (male and female persons who have committed offenses and crimes, acting in a group and alone, etc.). However, in all cases and in all minors in the system of relations and mental states there is much in common, unique, peculiar only to places of social isolation, which gives reason to talk about typical changes in attitudes and mental states.
First of all, the system of relations and the accompanying mental states are characterized by a certain dynamics, which has its own laws. The "turning points" (critical points), in which the system of relations inevitably changes and the dominant mental states change, draw attention to themselves. Such "points" can be: a call to the commission on juvenile affairs, involvement in the investigation and the court, placement in the reception center (or detention center), the initial stage of staying in a special school, a special technical school, VC, the main stage, the stage of waiting for release or release from punishment.
Especially responsible for the newcomer is the initial stage (the stage of adaptation, introduction into the new environment), when the minor faces many difficulties, new demands on his behavior and actions and must develop his attitude towards them. Will he be able to adapt, will he find new friends in the institution, will he take an unofficial and formal relationship in the group hierarchy — all of these questions require an immediate response from the minor, alarming, disturbing sleep, reducing mood. Often this state is promoted by the tales of "experienced" minors who are well acquainted with places of social exclusion, seeking to intimidate newcomers and subordinate them to their influence, turn them against educators and administration. All this can cause deviant behavior inherent in the adaptation period (shoots, self-harm, mass tattooing, etc.).
After 4-6 months of being in places of social exclusion of minors, the main period begins when mental states and personal reactions to the very fact of isolation are leveled. Minors acquire a stable syndrome of "deprived of liberty", which makes them seem to be similar ("all look alike"). In the main period, temporary reactions, if they were inadequate, most often disappear. Mental states are stable, the background of moods is leveled. With the in-depth development of negative changes in the personality (especially in those oppressed in their environment), conditions inadequate to this period may persist.
The main period is a qualitatively new stage of a person’s stay in places of social isolation. If during the initial (adaptation) period, the very fact of arrest (placement in places of social isolation) is subjected to psychological processing and the minor seeks to reconcile his past and present, then after adapting to the conditions of isolation, he begins to live in the present with hope for the future. But since the future is distant for a considerable time of unavoidable stay in a special school (special vocational school, K), the mental conditions of minors may temporarily worsen under the influence of this factor, which reflects the difficulties of adaptation to a developing life situation1.
The period prior to release (release from punishment) begins for minors in different ways, but usually 3-5 months before the end of the “term” of isolation. It is characterized by the desire to “overtake” time, to whip it up and bring the cherished day closer. This pattern also reveals itself in military conditions, when, for “100 days before the order”, “demobels” begin to count the remaining weeks, days and hours. The increase in anxious waiting is the main feature of the state of the minor during this period. The result of this may be an escape or some other kind of aberrant behavior. V. Shukshin in the story “Stepka” described such a typical case when a convict escaped 3 months before his release, this state of waiting exhausted him.
Mental states can also change in the intervals between these critical points in connection with significant for a minor events (waiting for a meeting, receiving a letter or parcel, placement in a disciplinary room, "disassembly" between groups, etc.), which themselves, within certain stages of stay in places of social isolation, become "critical points".
The relationship between this and the previous mental state of a minor may be twofold: either the previous state is replaced by the opposite, or it is replaced by a similar, but deeper one, which confirms the general pattern of the dynamics of human mental states2.
For a person isolated from society, it is characteristic, on the one hand, the lag of mental
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1 See: Glotochkin AG, Pirozhkov V.F. Corrective labor psychology. Textbook. M .: Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, 1975, Ch. Xi.
2 See: N.D. Levitov. On the mental states of man. M., 1964.
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standing from his actual position (for example, being in isolation, a teenager can still retrospectively experience his behavior in court or during the commission of a crime), but on the other hand, experienced mental states may outpace the actual social status of a minor (for example, awaiting release (release) , he is pre-configured for a certain "wave", experiencing conditions that will arise when he meets with family and friends).
At the same time, at a different stage of social isolation, a minor experiences not only different mental states: each of them is also characterized by different depth and strength. For minors experiencing isolation from society, they are characterized by an increased tendency to self-analysis and “self-digging” in their past, which can deepen and reinforce the difficult experiences that have arisen. At the same time, each stage of social isolation is characterized by its own specific set of mental states that have the greatest intensity and intensity.
Typical mental states for a minor who is at a certain stage of being in isolation are interconnected, manifested as a syndrome in which one of the states is leading. The main states (syndromes), peculiar to persons isolated from society, can be distinguished in a number of groups.
First of all, we note the set of conditions associated with the expectation of the occurrence of important events for the minor (release, early submission for release and release, granting a date, etc.). Waiting syndrome includes the following conditions: alarms caused by the lack or uncertainty of information about an event that interests a minor; fear (fear) caused by an event, the occurrence of which is unpleasant for a teenager; impatience caused by the event, the occurrence of which is favorable for him.
For minors who are in conditions of social isolation, there is also a frustration syndrome, manifested in the form of a breakdown of life plans and a manifestation of a sense of hopelessness, insecurity, and despair. "Frustration - the state of a person, expressed in the characteristic features of experiences and behavior and caused by objectively insurmountable (or subjectively so understood) difficulties arising on the way to achieving a goal or solving a problem" 1. In the frustration of a minor, a number of states come together, and above all hopelessness and doom. It is characteristic that hopelessness in a person deprived of liberty always stands together with the hope of changing his fate for the better. Therefore, hopelessness and hope in a person who is in conditions of social exclusion has a "pulsating" character. It is easy for him to inspire hope (for example, for an amnesty), but it is even easier to cause a state of hopelessness. The state of insecurity (acting in tandem with the state of protection) is caused in a minor not only by actual claims on the part of the administration, but also by claims from his inner circle, especially from negatively-minded groups of minors.
The typical state of minors is homesickness, family, friends, still a way of life. Anxiety syndrome includes increased excitability and irritability, sadness, discomfort, causes perseveration - an obsessive repetition of the same images of memory and imagination, produces a specific gait of the "deceased person." The melancholy is especially acute on the eve of family holidays (name days, birthdays), after receiving letters from home, ending dates, etc. The anguish is so grave that the minors compare it to some kind of monster tormenting a person (remember the folk: “sadness, longing eats the good fellow”).
The main reasons for activating the state of longing include the presence of unoccupied free time among minors, the monotony and monotony of prison life, the lack of immediate and long-term prospects, self-isolation and loneliness2.
Tosca is usually associated with boredom, which is caused not only by the above reasons, but also by the subjective characteristics of the personality, its psychological unpreparedness for living under conditions of law restraints. Minors resort to numerous, sometimes life-threatening, entertainment, violating the regime, with the help of which they are trying to get rid of boredom and boredom. Even more painful is the state of apathy, which gives rise to passivity.
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1 See: Kuznetsov ON, Lebedev V.I. Psychology and psychopathology of loneliness. M., 1972, p. 30-55.
2 See: Ibid.
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minor, paralyzing his will and intelligence. Apathy can complete an alarming series of conditions experienced by minors in the stages of arrest (placement in a receiver-distributor, adaptation to the conditions of a special institution and VC).
The further development of the depressed personality of a minor can lead to a number of borderline states; different levels and severity of depression requiring the help of a psychiatrist. These depressions are most often manifested in insomnia, other sleep disorders, irritability, confusion, bitterness, heightened aggressiveness and auto-aggressiveness, which can gradually accumulate (communicate), demanding a certain "relief" in the form of fights, escapes, oppression of the weak, self-mutilation and so on. P. However, minors tend to get out of depression, using their own methods of self-therapy:
- confessional therapy - confession in front of others, most often in front of peer friends, helping to relieve tension on the basis of mutual empathy;
- musical-song self-therapy, expressed in the tendency of minors to songs with intimate content, sad melodies, complaints about a failed fate;
- alcohol ("chifirnuyu", "toxic") therapy - the desire of alcohol intoxication, the use of toxic substances to bring themselves to a "good mood" - "high", disconnected from the alarming reality;
- entertaining self-therapy (gambling, "registration" of beginners, riddles, group violations of the regime, etc.) that distract from the experience of the fact of social isolation and monotony of life;
- do-it-yourself therapy - practicing specific "prison" art, various handicrafts, making prohibited items, passion for pornography, tattooing, etc.
For the understanding of the psychology of the personality of a minor who is in isolation, the ratio at different stages of the states of guilt and innocence that he experiences is important. In connection with the activation of the mechanisms of self-justification, which was discussed above, there is a tendency to weaken the feeling of guilt and the growth of false conviction in his innocence. This trend is intensifying as the time spent by a minor in isolation increases. The dynamics of these states are mainly influenced by the actualized psychological defense mechanisms, which allows the juvenile offender, despite the negative assessment of his criminal behavior, to maintain a satisfactory attitude towards himself. All this is expressed in the syndrome of "innocent victim". "Characteristic for a minor and a specific syndrome of waiting for release (release) ahead of time. The most important structural elements of these syndromes are: the growth of anxiety series, the emergence of various phobias, asteno-depressive states, an increase in the dependence of a person on suggestive influences. As a rule, the cause of the occurrence of severe mental states is that the personality of the minor does not cope with the psychological processing of the late Update effects of stressful situations and frustration due to the weakening or "breakage" of psychological defense mechanisms and the effect of inadequate security arrangements.
The emergence and development of the mental states mentioned in this paragraph are often characterized by sleep disorders such as sleep disturbance, early waking up, shallow sleep, insomnia, nightmares, and combined disturbances. However, for each stage of social isolation it is peculiar to its own, distinct from other stages, distribution of indicators of sleep disorders. Complaints of sleep disorders are often found in letters to relatives and friends, in conversations with doctors, recorded in diaries. All this should be used in the diagnosis of mental states experienced by minors.
Most often, sleep is disturbed in particularly critical periods in the life of a minor. Sleeping disorder is manifested in the fact that, despite the feeling of fatigue, to which adolescents and young men seek to bring themselves to bed, they are not able to fall asleep quickly. Obsessive thoughts about the house, relatives, acquaintances, etc. prevent him from falling asleep. Superficial, shallow sleep is highly dependent on both external factors (night noise, light, smells in the living room, walking and snoring of people), and on the internal attitudes of the personality (fear of reprisals during sleep by negatively minded individuals). Previously spilling can be the result of a shallow sleep or an independent violation of it. The most serious sleep disorder is insomnia, which “stretches” the night, psychologically and physically exhausts a person, causes him headaches, makes him irritable, withdrawn, embittered.
The dreams of minors are restless, disturbing. Some minors, especially those who were harassed by negatively-minded groups, experience nightmares, which are accompanied by fear, a sense of their helplessness.
To overcome mental states that negatively affect a person, psychological, pedagogical, medical and regime measures should be applied in combination. This will contribute to a significant reduction in the level of various types of deviant behavior of minors.

Findings:
1. Social isolation causes certain states of the individual, which are characterized by the typicality of their dynamics. The mental states of the adaptation, main periods of the stay of minors in isolation and the waiting period for release (release) are highlighted. For each of them has its own peculiar range of experienced mental states that form a certain syndrome.
2. The most important syndromes are waiting syndrome, frustration syndrome, anguish and boredom syndrome, apathy, as well as a number of borderline states of anxiety series requiring the help of a psychiatrist and a psychologist.
3. To remove a number of serious conditions, minors use a number of methods of self-therapy, such as confession, musical song therapy, alcohol-toxicotherapy, entertainment therapy, therapy with specific types of activity. Knowledge of these types of self-therapy suggests possible ways of removing and overcoming negative mental states in minors in conditions of social isolation, taking into account the introduction of socially valuable principles into them.
4. In the prevention of deviant behavior of minors, an important condition is the timely and high-quality diagnosis of the conditions experienced and the use of a set of appropriate measures.

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Criminal psychology

Terms: Criminal psychology