Reflections On Rogers’ “Doing Time” and “Dead Man Walking” (response article)

H. John Rogers’ two-part article on the death penalty underscore the basic problem with capital punishment as an “instrument” of justice: the effect it has on individuals in a civilized society. Vengeance and revenge may “feel good,” but the purpose of civilization, according to Freud, is to help humankind come to terms with the problem of human aggression. It is to teach self-restraint through sublimation which, in part, involves taking “drives” like the desire for revenge and channeling them into more constructive pursuits. As Rogers elegantly points out, capital punishment affects not only the condemned but, and this is of equal importance, it affects the executioners as well. While we can and should emotionally empathize with the victims of crime, for individuals like Mr. Rogers’ friend who “used to be a liberal,” is not life imprisonment without parole a rational response to their need for vengeance given society’s need to protect us and mete out justice without inflaming popular passions and putting some citizens in the dangerous position of being murderers for the whole? Freud, I think, would argue that to put any individual in the position of having to cross that line by acting out our deepest drives for aggression (“the death instinct”) makes it difficult if not impossible for us to maintain any kind of civilized order that places limits on all of our aggression.

Rogers’ youthful experience as a prison guard illuminates the problem poignantly because it highlights the dangerous effects that prisons have on the guardians. They too become dehumanized (uncivilized) by the job and that is why prisons are horrible places for both the inmates and the keepers. “Tough” talk feels good but the reality of it is ugly; just being with killers tests the most civilized of us. So, how does making “executioners” out of some of us improve the quality of “civilized” life? This argument is particularly difficult to make in our culture because of how “comfortable” we are, as a culture, with aggression and “tough” talk witness the public outcry over the firing of Bob Grant [New York City radio talk show host] and the enormous popularity of “hate” radio and “liberal bashing.” A group of my students visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, recently and a most-talented student had a very interesting and uniquely American reaction to it. He said that his experience at the museum reinforced his belief in the right to bear arms: “If they were armed they would not have been such easy victims.”

Freud did not think that psychoanalysis would have a significant impact in America. While all of us who read and write for this publication defy his expectations, I do think that we face enormous resistance to raising questions that challenge the popularity of such issues like the death penalty. The movie Dead Man Walking enjoyed enormous popularity, in part, because its “message” was so ambiguous.

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