Main argument section of Psychological Survival book review - Essay Example

Psychological Survival by Stanley Cohen Book Review Main argument In Cohen’s book, the main concern was the survival of the prisoners who have been locked up after leaving prison. Once a person enters prison, there is some form of psychological treatment that they receive. Inside the prison, they meet plenty more others just like them (Cohen & Taylor, 44, 1972). They relate to one another, sometimes in a good way and sometimes the results are not that pleasing. Once inside, the once self made criminal begins to reform at their own pace.

A new and reformed person finally exits the prison having learnt their own lesson in their own way (Cohen & Taylor, 79, 1972). What comes to focus is how they will survive inside and outside the prison. Society has already branded them criminals, and it is hard to be convinced that a condemned criminal has totally changed and has left the crime life. They face stigmatization as if they are not human. Inside the prison, they longed for freedom, with some wanting and attempting escape. They long for the touch of a loved one, or just to see them (Cohen & Taylor, 108, 1972).

Such are the reasons that prisoners are determined to get out of prison, whichever way they deem fit. Locking up prisoners for a long time does not mean that they will reform, or that they will eventually get released. With prisoners, nothing is certain in prison. An individual might be alive for an instance, and dead the next. Prison creates more than a correction center. It creates a sense of insecurity, wonder, loss of hope; it represents crushed and past dreams, and a time that will never be recovered since it has passed (Cohen & Taylor, 144, 1972).

BibliographyCohen, S., & Taylor, L. (1972), Psychological survival: the experience of long-term imprisonment, New York, Pantheon books.