BETWEEN BARS AND BONDS: DECONSTRUCTING PRISONIZATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES IN CONFINEMENT INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

This article, based on a qualitative autoethnographic study, offers a critical reflection on formal psychological practices in contexts of adolescent incarceration and conflict with criminal law. These practices—exemplified by the routine use of standardized risk‐assessment forms, bureaucratic case reports, and judicial evaluations—operate within a treatment-and-classification logic that objectifies young people by reducing their complexity to diagnostic labels. Drawing on a dialogical epistemology that weaves together psychoanalysis, sociology, and social education, the authors propose an insubordinate psychology grounded in a socio‐educational heuristic, a case‐by‐case approach, and an artisanal, relational practice that recognizes the Other in their singularity as an enigmatic subject.