MONDAY NIGHT LECTURE SERIES | DOING NOTHING/NOTHING DOING | SPRING 2026

"The Last Thing Left": Self-Destructive Resistance in Prison

Self-destructive resistance involves the self-infliction of violence (through, e.g., hunger strike, self-mutilation, self-neglect, or self-immolation) to protest injustice or protect basic interests. It is often depoliticized and pathologized, especially in prison where it is common and routinely suppressed under the guise of 'suicide prevention'. Medical ethicists’ and social scientists’ standard de-pathologizing frameworks fail to capture the agency-undermining effects of carceral oppression. A pathogenesis of the prison enables a philosophical account of self-destructive resistance that illuminates its multiple modalities and its essentially protective function.

Doing Nothing/Nothing Doing
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