"The Work": A very powerful documentary

hiker

Jedi Council Member
FOTCM Member
From a review on imdb:

The Work shows a group therapy program set in Folsom Prison, where a set of convicts, with brutal histories and broken lives, sit down with a few volunteers from the outside world and share their pain with each other in the most civilized manner possible.

The film does not sugarcoat anything, showing everything as it is, with honesty, but never exploiting or lessening the integrity of its subjects. The life stories and decisions the prisoners made in the past are gruesome and dark, but the program and documentary makes an effort to refrain from judging them by their actions alone, demonstrating that they are not that different from anybody else, they are human beings. There's the same amount of respect and emphasis on the volunteer's demons and struggles, which further reinforces the previous statement. The Work makes the wise choice of singling out a few characters, people and concentrate mainly on them and their baggage. Though I would have loved to hear everybody's story, this decision makes for a tighter and much more focused "narrative" and a more accessible documentary.

Throughout the film we meet some extraordinary men, get to explore their psyche and empathize with their life story. The Work is an intense, brutally raw and tearjerking look at manhood, humanity and the depressing reality of a life lived behind bars. It shines a light to this incredible therapy program and makes the viewer reflect on their own lives. One of the best and most affecting documentaries I've ever seen.

_http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5836866/?ref_=tt_urv






You really feel the power of the process and the after effects just by watching the documentary. Makes one wonder what it would be like to participate in it. (I was reminded of Jordan Peterson's views while watching.)

There was a great discussion with the guys who made the film on the dvd extras. All of them went through the 4 day process themselves. One of them described it thusly: "It was like something that was buried deep down got released, and it has been gone since."

They have had these "workshops" at the Folsom prison since 1999-2000. The guy who founded them, was present in the prison when there was a riot and the facility was in a lock down for seven months. During this time he was doing some soul searching, and came across Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's search for meaning".

I guess this kind of Work could be used as selection process to weed out psychopaths in prison, I doubt they would be willing to participate or could show emotions to this degree.

Anyways, I highly recommend the documentary!
 
hiker said:
They have had these "workshops" at the Folsom prison since 1999-2000. The guy who founded them, was present in the prison when there was a riot and the facility was in a lock down for seven months. During this time he was doing some soul searching, and came across Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's search for meaning".

I guess this kind of Work could be used as selection process to weed out psychopaths in prison, I doubt they would be willing to participate or could show emotions to this degree.

Anyways, I highly recommend the documentary!

Have you read 'Inside the criminal mind'?

Based on the trailers, it seems it focuses on group therapy and that there's a lot of touchy feely stuff involved. That's very different from the process that Samenow describes in his book that his mentor, Prof. Yochelson, undertook with prisoners.

I'd say that these kinds of documentaries are 'very powerful' because they facilitate all sorts of projection from the viewer on to what the prisoners are 'going through'. While viewers can project whatever they like just for 'fun', projection on the part of the person tasked with helping the prisoners to change is a much more serious problem.
 
hiker said:
The Work shows a group therapy program set in Folsom Prison, where a set of convicts, with brutal histories and broken lives, sit down with a few volunteers from the outside world and share their pain with each other in the most civilized manner possible.

The film does not sugarcoat anything, showing everything as it is, with honesty, but never exploiting or lessening the integrity of its subjects. The life stories and decisions the prisoners made in the past are gruesome and dark, but the program and documentary makes an effort to refrain from judging them by their actions alone, demonstrating that they are not that different from anybody else, they are human beings. There's the same amount of respect and emphasis on the volunteer's demons and struggles, which further reinforces the previous statement. The Work makes the wise choice of singling out a few characters, people and concentrate mainly on them and their baggage. Though I would have loved to hear everybody's story, this decision makes for a tighter and much more focused "narrative" and a more accessible documentary.

Well, I don't know about all this 'emotionalism' that's being displayed when it's all centered around the inmates themselves, that is, it's centered all around the 'I' and 'me' and how they feel. I guess you can say it's an emotional catharsis and release of some kind and it might 'feel good' and all like that but does it bring them any closer to objective reality? Lot's of men have this inner pain who go about their lives day by day and they still make the right kind of decisions to keep them from hurting others. When they view their inner pain within the context of hurting others then their inner pain takes on a less important, dramatic and emotional tone. The pain is still there but what really puts things in perspective for the average guy is the loss of importance given to the individual 'self' and it's own personal pain in light of how others are affected if one should lash out at individuals or at society that can cause others pain.

I probably have the same kind of anger as some of these guys have and I used to release it by hitting the punching bag, and I do mean that I would hit it hard, hard enough to punch/kick it into the next time zone. But the best it did is temporarily release all that inner anger/rage that I felt because of all the unfairness that I felt that was directed toward me from life. It did help me to get in touch with my inner rage and release it but it didn't bring me any closer to reality because it was still about 'me'. The only thing that I think can probably bring one closer to objective reality is the growth of inner conscience and putting oneself in another's place and knowing how others hurt just like ourselves. And in this case I think that coming to these deeper realizations from conscience (something that will really change your thinking and 'being' along with an emotional catharsis) is not so dramatic and 'me oriented' as it is with this kind of therapy. Just my observation on this based on the videos (fwiw) although I haven't seen the documentary.
 
Hard to say from the trailers. It gives impression that the therapy is simple- feel once every thing gone, but self control and not repeating it can be hard in this real messed up world and needs lot of repeating to make difference. May be it is covered in the total documentary.
 
Joe said:
Have you read 'Inside the criminal mind'?

Based on the trailers, it seems it focuses on group therapy and that there's a lot of touchy feely stuff involved. That's very different from the process that Samenow describes in his book that his mentor, Prof. Yochelson, undertook with prisoners.

I'd say that these kinds of documentaries are 'very powerful' because they facilitate all sorts of projection from the viewer on to what the prisoners are 'going through'. While viewers can project whatever they like just for 'fun', projection on the part of the person tasked with helping the prisoners to change is a much more serious problem.

Hi Joe. I have not yet read "Inside the criminal mind". I remember Laura mentioning that both of the Samenow's books are probably the most essential Work -related material, and I am about to order them from Amazon soon. Due to my health condition, I have not yet read Collingwood's books either, as they seem to be pretty heavy duty stuff. I will begin with the Samenow's books as they seem to be a bit "easier" to start with and save Collingwood for later. :)

This type of prison work for sure does not "cover all the bases". It was interesting to see though, that some of the prisoners attend the workshops for a long time and perhaps then eventually acquire some objective realizations about their behaviour and place in the society.
 
hiker said:
Hi Joe. I have not yet read "Inside the criminal mind". I remember Laura mentioning that both of the Samenow's books are probably the most essential Work -related material, and I am about to order them from Amazon soon. Due to my health condition, I have not yet read Collingwood's books either, as they seem to be pretty heavy duty stuff. I will begin with the Samenow's books as they seem to be a bit "easier" to start with and save Collingwood for later. :)

This type of prison work for sure does not "cover all the bases". It was interesting to see though, that some of the prisoners attend the workshops for a long time and perhaps then eventually acquire some objective realizations about their behaviour and place in the society.

I suppose that's possible, but I think if you read Inside the Criminal Mind, you'll get an idea of what the author thinks is needed to have a real chance of *truly* reforming "criminal minds". Samenow makes the case that in trying to reform an entrenched and truly criminal mind, facilitators have to more or less put them through some part of the process of what we know as the 'work on the self' (although he does not describe it as such).

Now consider how difficult it is for us here to change our programming etc. It's a lifelong endeavor. Do you think that if you or any of us went through that kind of 'emotional release' process as seen in the docu. that it would have made much difference? If not, then how much less effect would it have on a hardened criminal mind?

I'm not dismissing it, I'm just saying that it seems to me that most people don't appreciate just how hard it is to change a person's thinking process, nor do they appreciate just how wily and sneaky 'system 1 and system 2' can be in creating narratives and lies to the self and to others to get what 'it' wants. In case of criminals, given the way their minds have been trained to operate, there is always the high risk that they simply go along with such processes in order to get early release or better treatment etc. There is a very strong injunction in most people against changing in such a way that they are required to shoulder more responsibility for their lives.
 
kenlee said:
Well, I don't know about all this 'emotionalism' that's being displayed when it's all centered around the inmates themselves, that is, it's centered all around the 'I' and 'me' and how they feel. I guess you can say it's an emotional catharsis and release of some kind and it might 'feel good' and all like that but does it bring them any closer to objective reality? Lot's of men have this inner pain who go about their lives day by day and they still make the right kind of decisions to keep them from hurting others. When they view their inner pain within the context of hurting others then their inner pain takes on a less important, dramatic and emotional tone. The pain is still there but what really puts things in perspective for the average guy is the loss of importance given to the individual 'self' and it's own personal pain in light of how others are affected if one should lash out at individuals or at society that can cause others pain.

I probably have the same kind of anger as some of these guys have and I used to release it by hitting the punching bag, and I do mean that I would hit it hard, hard enough to punch/kick it into the next time zone. But the best it did is temporarily release all that inner anger/rage that I felt because of all the unfairness that I felt that was directed toward me from life. It did help me to get in touch with my inner rage and release it but it didn't bring me any closer to reality because it was still about 'me'. The only thing that I think can probably bring one closer to objective reality is the growth of inner conscience and putting oneself in another's place and knowing how others hurt just like ourselves. And in this case I think that coming to these deeper realizations from conscience (something that will really change your thinking and 'being' along with an emotional catharsis) is not so dramatic and 'me oriented' as it is with this kind of therapy. Just my observation on this based on the videos (fwiw) although I haven't seen the documentary.

Good insights there Ken I think.
 
Joe said:
I suppose that's possible, but I think if you read Inside the Criminal Mind, you'll get an idea of what the author thinks is needed to have a real chance of *truly* reforming "criminal minds". Samenow makes the case that in trying to reform an entrenched and truly criminal mind, facilitators have to more or less put them through some part of the process of what we know as the 'work on the self' (although he does not describe it as such).

Now consider how difficult it is for us here to change our programming etc. It's a lifelong endeavor. Do you think that if you or any of us went through that kind of 'emotional release' process as seen in the docu. that it would have made much difference? If not, then how much less effect would it have on a hardened criminal mind?

I'm not dismissing it, I'm just saying that it seems to me that most people don't appreciate just how hard it is to change a person's thinking process, nor do they appreciate just how wily and sneaky 'system 1 and system 2' can be in creating narratives and lies to the self and to others to get what 'it' wants.

Thanks for your comments Joe, I look forward to reading Samenow's book(s)! :cool:
 
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