ABSTRACT
Therapeutic techniques appear to be fully immersed in contemporary culture. Counselling and coaching are accessible everywhere, online, on the market or within institutions, and capture the endeavour to remake oneself, and others (Furedi 2004; Johansson 2006). Cognitive behavioural training, in particular, has spread like wildfire, both across countries and across different areas of policy (Kyvsgaard 2006). In the Swedish prison system, coaching and cognitive behavioural training programmes have been the preferred means of intervention since the mid-1990s. Inmates are encouraged, for instance, to participate in role-playing exercises where the objective is learning to respond to mixed messages. One scenario is:
You have applied for a position, and you ask when you will hear from them. The supervisor responds ironically and scornfully (as you perceive it): ‘We don’t want to keep a promising person like you waiting. We’ll put you at the top of the list.’
