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  3. Incarceration Games: A History of Role-Play in Psychology, Prisons, and Performance

Incarceration Games: A History of Role-Play in Psychology, Prisons, and Performance

Stephen Scott-Bottoms
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Do you want to play a game?

Incarceration Games reexamines the complex history and troubled legacy of improvised, interactive role-playing experiments. With particular attention to the notorious Stanford prison study, the author draws on extensive archival research and original interviews with many of those involved, to refocus attention on the in-game choices of the role-players themselves.

Role-playing as we understand it today was initially developed in the 1930s as a therapeutic practice within the New York state penal system. This book excavates that history and traces the subsequent adoption of these methods for lab experimentation, during the postwar "stage production era" in American social psychology. It then examines the subsequent mutation of the Stanford experiment, in particular, into cultural myth—exploring the ways in which these distorted understandings have impacted on everything from reality TV formats to the "enhanced interrogation" of real-world terror suspects. Incarceration Games asks readers to reconsider what they thought they knew about this tangled history, and to look at it again from the role-player's perspective.
  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Illustrations
  • Note on Sources
  • Preface
  • Part One: The Stage Production Era
    • 1. Setting the Scene
    • 2. From Sing Sing to Psychodrama
    • 3. The Trouble with Normal
    • 4. The Performance of Compliance
    • 5. From Teacher to Torturer
  • Part Two: Approaching Stanford
    • 6. Good Cop / Bad Cop
    • 7. Things Fall Apart
    • 8. Theatre of Cruelty
    • 9. The Role of the Prisoner
    • 10. The Role of the Guard
  • Part Three: Beyond the Lab
    • 11. The Medium Is the Message
    • 12. Lifting the Mask
    • 13. Attack of the Clones
    • 14. Mission Drift
    • 15. Consenting Adults
  • Acknowledgments
  • Footnotes
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
Citable Link
Published: 2024
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-22167-7 (ebook)
  • 978-0-472-07671-0 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-05671-2 (paper)
Subject
  • Theater and Performance
  • Psychology
  • American Studies

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  • Preface1
  • Chapter 12
  • Chapter 21
  • Chapter 31
  • Chapter 51
  • Chapter 61
  • Chapter 71
  • Chapter 83
  • Chapter 91
  • Chapter 101
  • Chapter 111
  • Chapter 121
  • Chapter 131
  • Chapter 151

  • Stanford Prison Experiment9
  • BBC Prison Study1
  • Blast Theory1
  • Deindividuation1
  • Geese Theatre1
  • more Keyword »

  • Unknown8
  • Polley, John2
  • Scott-Bottoms, Stephen2
  • Blast Theory1
  • Clark, Edmund1
  • more Creators »

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Pinhole camera image of a man’s face, features blurred, against black background.

Anonymous prisoner, HMP Grendon, 2017

From Preface

Fig. 1. Anonymous prisoner, HMP Grendon, 2017. Courtesy of Edmund Clark.

A young blond man in a militaristic “guard” uniform and mirror shades, leaning against a wall. The words “Stanford County Prison” are visible on a sign near his elbow.

Dave Eshleman as mock-guard. Stanford University, 1971

From Chapter 1

Fig. 2. Dave Eshleman as mock-guard. Stanford University, 1971. The Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, University of Akron.

A gray-­haired man with bushy beard, is taking a selfie with his phone while looking into the bathroom mirror. He wears a knee-­length white smock numbered 5486 on the chest.

Jerry Shue in his #5486 smock. Utah, 2018

From Chapter 1

Fig. 3. Jerry Shue in his #5486 smock. Utah, 2018. Courtesy of Jerry Shue.

A diagram (or sociogram) shows four circles representing four cottages at the Hudson School. Inside each circle are other circles with initials, denoting individual inmates. They are linked by radiating lines of attraction, both within and between cottages.

The Social Atom of WL

From Chapter 2

Fig. 4. The Social Atom of WL. Based on sociogram in Moreno 1934: 86.

The stone wall of a camp cabin, at night, is lit by camera flash. Two boys, their backs to the camera, lean in at the window of the cabin. One of them is kneeling on the window sill, but they have stopped at the threshold. A third boy is visible to the right.

The Rattlers raid the Eagles’ cabin. Robbers Cave Experiment, Oklahoma, 1954

From Chapter 3

Fig. 5. The Rattlers raid the Eagles’ cabin. Robbers Cave Experiment, Oklahoma, 1954. The Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, University of Akron.

The mocked-­up control panel of a machine ostensibly designed to administer electric shocks. A horizontal row of lights and switches runs from left to right, between the 255 volts switch (marked “Intense Shock”) and the 435 volts switch (marked “XXX”).

Stanley Milgram’s shock machine (detail)

From Chapter 5

Fig. 6. Stanley Milgram’s shock machine (detail). Photo: Stephen Scott-Bottoms.

Three young women sit on the floor, their backs leaning against a blank, white wall. They are dressed uniformly in white smocks. The number 416 is visible at the shoulder of the woman on the right.

Female prisoners in David Jaffe’s 24-hour prison study. Stanford University, 1971

From Chapter 6

Fig. 7. Female prisoners in David Jaffe’s 24-hour prison study. Stanford University, 1971. The Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, University of Akron.

Four women sit in a half circle around a small table with a box-­like machine on it. They are wearing oversize white lab coats and large hoods over their heads, apparently made from pillowcases bearing a flower design. Small eye and mouth holes are cut into the hoods.

Participants in Zimbardo’s Deindividuation study. NYU Bronx, 1967

From Chapter 7

Fig. 8. Participants in Zimbardo’s Deindividuation study. NYU Bronx, 1967. The Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, University of Akron.

A map-­like graphic shows the floor layout for a “prison yard” mocked up in the basement of Stanford University’s Jordan Hall. Three small cells open onto a short corridor. A dotted line marks the ingress route from outside.

Stanford Prison Experiment: entry to the Yard

From Chapter 8

Fig. 9. Stanford Prison Experiment: entry to the Yard. Graphic: John Polley.

This floor layout graphic shows a dotted line tracking the elongated basement route between the Stanford “prison yard” and the men’s restroom, via a boiler room.

Stanford Prison Experiment: restroom run

From Chapter 8

Fig. 10. Stanford Prison Experiment: restroom run. Graphic: John Polley.

Eight men in knee-­length white smocks and flip-­flops are lined up with their backs to the camera, their palms pressed high against the wall they are facing. A ninth man is visible in the foreground, executing push-­ups.

Prisoner count at Stanford

From Chapter 8

Fig. 11. Prisoner count at Stanford. The Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, University of Akron.

Three men are seated around a table, one of them flicking through papers on a clipboard. They face a prisoner in smock and hairnet. A fourth man guards the prisoner from behind.

Parole board at Stanford

From Chapter 9

Fig. 12. Parole board at Stanford. Left to right: Craig Haney, Carlo Prescott, [unidentified observer], Curtis Banks, Glenn-3401. The Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, University of Akron.

Three mock-­guards in the Stanford prison corridor, all wearing dark shades. The first, in the foreground, walks toward a cell, holding a whistle and a cigarette. Behind him, a second man holding a long baton. A third man sits on a table behind them, his back against the wall.

Guards on the Yard, Stanford. John Loftus in foreground. Video still

From Chapter 10

Fig. 13. Guards on the Yard, Stanford. John Loftus in foreground. Video still. The Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, University of Akron.

A double-­page magazine spread, with the headline “I Almost Considered the Prisoners as Cattle” to the left. The article’s text is accompanied by six black-­and-­white photographs showing scenes from the Stanford Prison Experiment.

“Parting Shots” spread in Life magazine, 15 October 1971

From Chapter 11

Fig. 14. “Parting Shots” spread in Life magazine, 15 October 1971.

A woman and man in dark clothing lean against a wall. They wear half-­face masks with furrowed brows. The man holds a board bearing the legend “Visit 2.”

Geese Theatre’s The Plague Game (UK version, 1990)

From Chapter 12

Fig. 15. Geese Theatre’s The Plague Game (UK version, 1990). Masks by Sally Brookes. Photo by Rod Morris. Courtesy of Geese Theatre UK.

A bearded man with heavily tattooed arms leans against the insubstantial bars of his mock prison cell, looking directly toward the camera.

Philip Bimpson, Prisoner #146. BBC prison study, 2002

From Chapter 13

Fig. 16. Philip Bimpson, Prisoner #146. BBC prison study, 2002. Courtesy of Philip Bimpson.

A man in glasses and a woman in a black blindfold are seated on the floor, facing each other, with a plywood wall immediately behind them. The man feeds bread directly into the woman’s mouth.

Matt Adams and Debra Burgess in Kidnap, London 1998

From Chapter 15

Fig. 17. Matt Adams and Debra Burgess in Kidnap, London 1998. Courtesy of Blast Theory.

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