Significant identity damage comes from the teachers' need to expose and reject master signifiers that they regard as oppressive (Bracher, p. 98). The harm produced is most notable in cases where students themselves appear to embody the master signifiers that the teachers find oppressive. In such cases, teachers
often respond with “oppositional pedagogy,” (as cited in Strickland, 1991) which entails “identifying and confronting the subject positions of [the] students — a practice that constitutes a direct assault on the students’ identities" (Bracher, 98).
To illustrate, I recall an experience in one of my undergraduate Anthropology classes where the teacher was explaining to the class how capitalist corporations were exploiting poorer countries by paying the workers fifty cents per hour. A classmate who was majoring in economics commented that the corporations were providing jobs to people in otherwise destitute regions and that the salaries paid went a long way in poor countries. Although I did not agree with my classmate, I felt bad for him because the teacher took the next ten minutes to attack him in front of the class. I think it would have been more helpful to the student and to the class if the teacher had opened up the topic to class discussion. The student would have been recognized and his point of view (held by many) would have been discussed in a non-identity threatening manner. As it happened, the student dropped the class and the remaining students were not open in sharing views that differed from the teacher. Thus, learning was hindered and the teacher's oppositional position was not unlike an authoritarian pedagogy.
Ironically, the delivery of the hysteric pedagogy is similar to the delivery of authoritarian pedagogy which is used to oppress the subaltern groups. In his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed 1970, Paulo Freire's refers to the banking concept of education: "knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing" (Freire, 72). "The teacher's task is to ... 'fill' the students by making deposits of information which he or she considers to constitute true knowledge" (Freire, p. 76). Freire further talks about the importance of dialogue which leads to reflection and action but he cautions that the dialogue should not be a hostile, polemical argument (Freire, p.89). When the cause becomes doctrine and canon, the teaching reflects more of a authoritarian and establishment pedagogy (Bracher, p. 98). As a consequence, delivery of the hysteric pedagogy takes an oppressive form.
Although the teachers of hysteric pedagogy seek to alleviate alienation and suffering, they fail to acknowledge the identities of the Other/criminal. Ultimately, the teachers refuse to see the connection between poverty and crime and therefore they are ineffective in social change. An article entitled, Poverty and Crime 2008, examines the connection between poverty and crime: "... a social class suffering from want and need is far more likely to produce individuals who will engage in criminal activities, than the social classes that are well off. This is particularly true of young people in impoverished situations" (para. 2). They are exposed to a greater temptation to steal and to become involved with gangs that sustain themselves by such criminal means as drug dealing and extortion.
Certainly the omission of connecting poverty and crime extends beyond the hysteric pedagogy and reflects the larger society as a whole. Many people acknowledge their identity signifers such as good, pro-social and caring that are enabled from demonizing the criminal as bad, anti-social and uncaring. According to Bracher, literature teachers focus on Others that are similar to ourselves - or the parts of ourselves that we acknowledge (p. 99). To acknowledge the aggressive and violent aspects of our own humanity is too much of a threat to our own damaged, superior identities. However, by not acknowledging the flaws of human nature within each of us, we deny the Others the support and opportunities to make better choices.
In my theology studies, I learned about a fictional character, Father Brown, who solved his crimes through a strict reasoning process more concerned with spiritual and philosophic truths rather than scientific details. In one of the stories entitled, The Secret of Father Brown 1937, he is asked how it was that he solves crimes so well. After some silence, he says, “I thought and thought about how a man might come to be like that, until I realized that I really was like that, in everything except actual final consent to the action (Chesterson, 1974). Therefore, Father Brown imagined himself as the perpetrator and he was able to solve the crime. He identified himself as capable of committing the crime with the only difference being that he chooses not to.
I recently listened to Dr Maya Angelou, now in her 80's, who was featured on Oprah's Master Class 2010. I was moved by her life lessons and her compassion for the Others. I wrote down one of her quotes: “I am capable of what every other human being is capable of. This is one of the great lessons of war and life.” I believe that it takes this kind of humility to make a difference in the world. When we identify the Other within ourselves, we will no longer demonize the criminal as we acknowledge and integrate the unpleasant aspects of our humanity into our own identities. Only then will we be in a better position to recognize and help others find healing and direction to make better choices.
It is apparent that the hysteric pedagogy comes from a heart to help others. However, the teacher's identity needs to expose and reject the oppressor lead to further conflict. In order to seek understanding, discourse needs to replace oppositional arguments. The teacher's need to expose the oppressor is quite ironic considering the demonization of the Other/criminal is a form of oppression. Identity signifiers such as "good" and "just" automatically alienates those who are labeled as "bad" and "unlawful". In order to put these identity signifiers aside, teachers need to acknowledge their own negative qualities within themselves rather than externalize those qualities and attack them in the Other, thus perpetuating the Other’s traumatization (p. 99). Otherwise, the alienation and oppression will be reproduced in student identities, thus negatively impacting them and society.
Bibliography of Secondary Sources
——. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VII,
ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Trans. Dennis Porter. New York: Norton, 1992.
——. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. Trans. Alan Sheridan. NewYork: Norton, 1977.
Course.” In Practicing Theory in Introductory College Literature Courses, ed. James M. Cahalan and David B. Downing. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1991. 115–130.
