Prisão, "O jogo que mudou a história”: uma leitura psicológica sobre a institucionalização de preso e carcereiro na série fílmica em questão

Abstract

This article aims to analyze, in the series, the process of institutionalization of Egídio (prisoner) and Jesus Pedra (prison guard). The setting of the series takes place in the Cândido Mendes prison during the Brazilian Military Dictatorship. From a Foucauldian theoretical perspective, institutionalization is understood as a process of subject-making, mediated by the disciplinary power-knowledge dynamics. Prison, as a total institution, inscribes new patterns of values, affects, and behaviors into individuals as an effect of the mortification of the “self.” The observational methodology, in the forms of indirect, artificial, and unsystematic observation, was employed to map institutional practices represented in the audiovisual device and their observable effects on the characters’ representation, described in a field diary. Data collection was associated with the methodological practice of cartography, in order to describe the flow of thoughts that emerged and guided the process as interpretative reading was made evident and recorded in reflective notes.The results indicate that, although occupying antagonistic positions, Egídio and Jesus Pedra follow convergent trajectories of institutionalization: (i) Egídio, subjected to physical, sexual, and symbolic violence, internalizes the prison codes of conduct as part of the technology that orchestrates his mortification; (ii) Jesus Pedra progressively adheres to institutionalized violence and submits to the prison logic until the fading of the representation of his former “self.” The prison, interpreted as another character, assumes the agency of an active guardian of discursive practices, which reproduce and maintain violence through the disciplining of subjects. This analysis points to the contradiction between the logic of surveillance and punishment that leads to the death of institutionalized subjects and the enunciation of their resocialization for a life that does not (and will never) exist, as it is the effect of the perpetuation of cycles of violence, racism, and dehumanization of prisoners and the incarcerated. This raises an impasse concerning the promotion of mental health in this context, which imposes captures and barriers on the ethical-political practice of Psychology.