Paper short abstract:

Rooted in interviews with hate group disengagement workers from Sweden, Germany, and the United States, a formulation of supremacy and analysis of both carceral and transformative justice interventions will be offered, toward a more effective discussion of culturally therapeutic change work.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will discuss the participation action oriented ethnographic dissertation research of the presenter, which began as an observation that current mental health care training models and competencies toward licensure lack training material or protocol for working with the human trait of supremacy, particularly in its most harmful manifestation as hateful violence and hate group membership. Rooted in interviews with hate group disengagement workers from Sweden, Germany, and the United States, who work directly with hate group members attempting to exit the supremacist lifestyle, the current research integrates genealogies of supremacist subjectification in the (post)Neoliberal era and historical understandings of supremacy, such as during the antebellum advent of populism and the rise of Nazi Germany. Accepting supremacy to be inherent to the human condition and deeply resonate with environmental forces, a formulation of supremacy will be offered through the lens of its historic mutability. Carceral interventions, which tend to focus on the criminality of hate crimes and terrorism will be considered alongside transformative justice intervention models, toward a more effective discussion of culturally therapeutic change work. Economic conditions, viz., (post)Neoliberalism, socially traumatic events, technological advancement, and a genealogy of authoritarianism in state and family are each considered for their impact on the subjectification of supremacist and authoritarian thinkers. Lastly, some lines of flight are sketched in a vision of change work with individuals when supremacy presents itself in the session room, classroom, or other meaningful social relationship.