Nurturing the Event: A Trauma-Informed Psychosocial Analysis of Conversions to Christianity and Desistance from Crime
The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the role prison chaplaincy and faith-based organisations play in supporting new Christian converts across HMPPS establishments. Drawing on research data from 11 in-depth narrative interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals, many of whom were long-term desisters or still in the desistance process (18 months post-release), this thesis provides a psychoanalytic interpretation of the relationship between early childhood development, traumatic events, and spiritual transformations in prison. Data was gathered using Hollway and Jefferson’s (2001) Free Association Narrative Interview Method (FANIM), which applies psychoanalytic principles to explore subjectivity beyond surface-level descriptions of self and identity. The conversion phenomenon was interpreted through Slavoj Žižek’s (2014) and Alain Badiou’s (2008) concept of Event, offering a psychoanalytic explanation for religious transformation and its impact on desistance journeys. Trauma was prevalent in the research data, leading to participants’ criminal onset, and for two-thirds of the sample, drug/alcohol addiction. However, while therapy helps address unresolved trauma, it often fails to heal the wound it leaves. The conversion process and newfound spirituality appeared to resolve this. The thesis will emphasize the importance of through-the-gate support and Christian-centred rehabilitation services, including Christian counselling, therapy, and residential rehabilitation for those with chronic drug/alcohol addiction. It will argue that if HMPPS aims to reduce reoffending in those who have found faith, integrating faith language into practice is necessary for fostering change. If spiritual faith has provided strength for surviving prison and life after, alongside progress in personal rehabilitation efforts, then this must be part of the entire reintegration process. Underpinning this entire discourse is the paradox of faith itself: having faith provides strength and resilience, yet it takes strength to maintain faith itself – this strength is something that comes from community and compassion and the feeling as though they belong and have come home.
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