Sortir de l'internement. Une sociologie des pratiques professionnelles en psychiatrie légale : entre autonomie et dangerosité
(2025)
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- Abstract
- What is expected of individuals who are interned with a view to their social reintegration, and how is this reintegration envisioned? In Belgium, internment is a restrictive or custodial security measure imposed on individuals who have committed a criminal offence and who, are declared irresponsible for their actions because of a mental disorder present at the time of the judicial decision. Regulated by the Belgian statute of 5 May 2014 on internment, which came into force on 1 October 2016, this measure has a dual objective: to protect society from individuals who are potentially dangerous and to provide these individuals with the necessary care to prepare for their reintegration. Based on a hybrid rationale of care and security, this measure is now organized around a “care trajectory” during which the internee is expected to become (more) autonomous in preparation for their return to society. This pathway takes the form of autonomy-building work, which takes place mainly at the time of release on probation, during which the internee enters mental health care facilities offering a greater or lesser level of security. Drawing on the sociology of professions and the sociology of care practices and based on two ethnographic fieldwork sites (observations and interviews) in two forensic psychiatric units and a mobile team for internees, the doctoral research examines the preparation for release from internment. Two aspects of this work are explored. On the one hand, an analysis of practices for assessing the autonomy and level of reinserability of internees reveals that autonomy, whether assessed clinically or psychometrically, is in tension with the notion of dangerousness and has a fundamentally moral dimension. On the other hand, the study looks at the intervention practices of professionals, who use gradually more intense forms of coercion, in particular the use of sanctions, in order to render internees sufficiently autonomous. It emerges that the social and institutional context of internment has a considerable impact on these practices, which often puts the work of professionals to a severe test. As a result, they must continually rethink and reinvent the framework of their professional activity.
- Affiliations
UCLouvain SSH/IRIS-L/CASP - Centre d'anthropologie,sociologie et psychologie : études et recherches UCLouvain SSH/IRIS-L/CSIR - Centre de recherches et d'interventions sociologiques
Citations
De Spiegeleir, S. (2025). Sortir de l’internement. Une sociologie des pratiques professionnelles en psychiatrie légale : entre autonomie et dangerosité. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/274279