Suppression, denial, sublimation: Defending against the initial pains of very long life sentences

The central purpose of the article is to explore the psychic components of the early pains of imprisonment described by male and female prisoners serving very long mandatory life sentences for murder. While there is a strong tradition of documenting prisoners’ adaptations to ‘life inside’, little work in prisons sociology explores how life-sentenced prisoners, specifically those convicted of murder, reactively respond and adjust to the early years of these sentences. Having outlined prisoners’ descriptions of entry shock, temporal vertigo and intrusive recollections, we draw upon a Freudian terminology of ‘defence mechanisms of the ego’ to argue that suppression, denial and sublimation represent key ways of ‘defending against’ (rather than ‘adapting to’) these experiences. We suggest that the particular offence–time nexus of our sample—the specific offence of murder combined with a very long sentence—helps to explain these defensive patterns.We are grateful for the support of by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant: ES/J007935/1], and the Isaac Newton Trust

‘Tightness’, recognition and penal power

Prison scholarship has tended to focus on the pains and frustrations that result from the use and over-use of penal power. Yet the absence of such power and the subjective benefits of its grip are also worthy of attention. This article begins by drawing on recent literature and research findings to develop the concept of ‘tightness’ beyond its initial formulation. Drawing primarily on data from a study of men convicted of sex offences, it goes on to explain that, in some circumstances, the reach and hold of penal power are not experienced as oppressive and undesirable, and, indeed, may be welcomed. Conversely, institutional inattention and an absence of grip may be experienced as painful. Prisons, then, can be ‘loose’ or ‘lax’ as well as ‘tight’. The article then discusses the different ways in which prisons exercise grip, and, in doing so, recognise or misrecognise the subjectivity of the individual prisoner. It concludes by identifying the connections between this ‘ground-up’ analysis of the relative legitimacy of different forms of penal intervention and recent discussions in penal theory about the proper role of the state in communicating censure and promoting personal repentance and change

Enacting experimental alternative spaces

This paper analyses the experimental nature of alternative spaces and the affective, emotional and embodied experience their enactment generates. In so doing, it grounds the analysis on the intentional community of Damanhur (Italy), as an example of experimental spaces. Scholarship concerning intentional communities draws on utopian studies that consider them as utopian laboratories. More recently, non‐representational approaches have emphasised the processual nature of utopias, yet studies have overlooked the experimental nature of these alternative spaces. Drawing upon in‐depth ethnographic data, this paper engages with community experimentations that took place in Damanhur for residents and visitors. It illustrates how utopian enactment is experimental and thus, disordering, unsettling and creative. Moreover, I argue that experimentations are not limited to unsettling the social structure of the community and, when studying the enactment of alternative spaces, emphasis should also be on their capacity to affect the individual

Molecule-by-Molecule Writing Using a Focused Electron Beam

The resolution of lithography techniques needs to be extended beyond their current limits to continue the trend of miniaturization and enable new applications. But what is the ultimate spatial resolution? It is known that single atoms can be imaged with a highly focused electron beam. Can single atoms also be written with an electron beam? We verify this with focused electron-beam-induced deposition (FEBID), a direct-write technique that has the current record for the smallest feature written by (electron) optical lithography. We show that the deposition of an organometallic precursor on graphene can be followed molecule-by-molecule with FEBID. The results show that mechanisms that are inherent to the process inhibit a further increase in control over the process. Hence, our results present the resolution limit of (electron) optical lithography techniques. The writing of isolated, subnanometer features with nanometer precision can be used, for instance, for the local modification of graphene and for catalysis.</p