Gang Exit and Forensic Psychiatry:Counter-Hegemonic Alternatives in the Danish Welfare State

In a decade of increasingly ‘tough on crime’ gang policies in Denmark, what can we learn about exit processes and (how to counter) social exclusion and alienation within the Danish welfare state? This chapter presents practice research with two former gang leaders, examining their protracted exit processes as part of the conduct of everyday life and as counter-hegemonic alternatives within and beyond forensic psychiatry.<br/><br/>Inspired by Marxian scholars such as Jean Lave to differentiate the term from resistance, we explore dialectical processes of alienation and disalienation where participants co-produce counter-hegemonic alternatives that both counter and adapt to hegemonic practices and policies. We analyse processes of exclusion, humiliation and alienation, as well as counter-hegemonic alternatives, as participation in co-production and disalienation processes as part of Martin and Fatih’s conduct of everyday life. Martin, a former president of a biker gang, and Fatih, a former street gang leader, both co-authored this chapter and have participated as co-researchers since 2014 and 2017 respectively. Each also has 10 years of experience as forensic psychiatric patients. Where Fatih is still struggling with positions within forensic psychiatry due to a placement sentence, Martin has moved beyond forensic psychiatry and the treatment sentence he received back in 2014. We follow Fatih’s everyday life processes of (dis)alienation in relation to forensic psychiatry and Martin’s struggles and (dis)alienation in relation to education and general psychiatry.