NOT JUST FOR PRISONERS! HEALING OUR IMPRISONED MINDS: A PEOPLES GUIDE TO HOPE AND FREEDOM By Patrick Middleton, P.H.D., #AK-3703 1975-
Patrick Middleton, Ph.D., is the perfect poster person for transformation. Hes the only American prisoner ever to get a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. while serving a sentence of life without parole in a Pennsylvania prison.
His doctoral thesis was on the criminal mind. His academic studies, along with his own healing experiences, give him a unique expertise in ways to rehabilitate those behind bars as well as those of us living free. His book is a roadmap for rehabilitation and mental and emotional healing that can be used by anyone whose life is full of suffering and despair.
There have been major controversies over what causes someone to become a criminal ever since the scientific study of crime began in the Nineteenth Century. Social-environmental theorists, for example, believe that different racial, social and economic factors cause individuals to turn to crime. Behavioral scientists believe that criminals are victims of drives and frustrations rooted in childhood. Then there are the biological, or genetic theorists who believe that criminality is caused by genetic, physiological or biological deficiencies. Dr. Middleton has studied all of these theories and finds they share in common the doctrine of Determinism, which simply holds that we humans have no control over our thoughts, feelings and actions. This doctrine says we are not the sculptors of circumstances, but, rather, the clay. But if this is true, where did such concepts as Free Will, Personal Transformation and Responsibility come from? Simply put, they came from the human experience.
It is his experience of transforming himself from scoundrel to scholar that is the basis of this inspirational book.
Abandoned by his father when he was four, Patrick grew up in an alcoholic house with an emotionally fragile mother and an abusive stepfather, He spent his youth confused and angry and letting the world know about it. By the time he was 14, he was declared incorrigible, and sent to live in a private home for boys. Removed from the home after he wasnt able to get along with the other boys, he bounced from childrens institution to foster home and back.
By the time he was 22, he had robbed a bank and was sent to the US Penitentiary at Lewisburg, PA, a place where pretty young white boys were a predators dream. During the 15 months he spent at Lewisburg, there were nine murders inside the walls, two of which he witnessed. Living in a state of perpetual terror, he never left his cell without a shank strapped to his leg. He was stabbed twice by attempted rapists and stabbed back in return. Knowing it was only a matter of time before he killed or was killed, he escaped in a trash truck. The next day, when his girlfriend who had helped him escape didnt show up at a pre-arranged meeting place, terrified at being returned to Lewisburg, he struck a woman in the head when she discovered him trying to steal her car. His call to get medical help for the woman resulted in his girlfriends arrest and eventually his re-arrest. When the victim died from her injuries, Patrick pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery-homicide, which in Pennsylvania, unlike most other states, carries a life sentence without the possibility of parole. To date, his two appeals for clemency before the Board of Pardons, the only way out of prison for lifers, have been denied.
When he started serving his life sentence at Pittsburghs Western Penitentiary in 1977, Patrick channeled his rage into boxing, eventually earning his way onto the varsity boxing team where he was able to travel with other prisoners to tournaments. He was given the nickname Rocky by his peers and fellow boxers. One day in the prison yard, he heard a group of prisoners called the Frat Boys holding a discussion about the medieval imagination. This intrigued the young lifer whose mind was always racing and curious, and it eventually led him to begin reading books. In his soon-to-be-published autobiography, he writes that it was the following passage in Saul Bellows novel Herzog that changed his life forever: With one long breath, caught and held in his chest, he fought his sadness over his solitary life. Dont cry, you idiot! Live or die but dont poison everything. These words awakened something inside him. For the first time in his life he was aware of the workings of his own mind. He began to observe how he thought and the actions that resulted from his thinking. As he discovered ways to gain control of his battered mind, in the process, he became transformed.
During this time when education used to be viewed as the key to rehabilitation, Western Penitentiary had one of the most progressive prison college programs in the country. With the hunger of a long-starved soul, Patrick Middleton gulped down one course after another, earning straight As in every course as he reconstructed a new self. In 1983, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, and won the distinguished Chancellors Scholarship Award. This monetary award enabled him to earn his Masters in Education degree in 1984 when he also was awarded other scholarships. During his tenure as a graduate student working on his doctorate, he taught and lectured full-time for the University of Pittsburgh; paid his own room and board to the Department of Corrections from his teaching stipends; conducted and published research reports and articles independently and with faculty co-authors; won several scholarships, fellowships and teaching awards; co-authored a textbook in experimental psychology with the University of Pittsburghs Dean of Psychology; and was the senior author of a teachers manual and test battery for the psychology textbook. Ironically, his participation in this scholarly venture got him in trouble with the prison administration. They interpreted the royalties he shared from the textbook (even though openly declared and deposited into his inmate account) as evidence that he was operating a business from within the institution. That interpretation led directly to his being transferred to another institution far away from his academic colleagues.
Today Patrick Middleton greets each day with gratitude and excitement. Within the confines of prison walls, he has created a remarkable freedom, using his disciplined mind and blossoming soul to create stories, novels, poems and essays. It is into this world that he invites readers to explore the riches and healing within themselves.
This book is a redemptive offering.
In a clear, inspirational, and loving voice, the wisdom and experience of the author can help readers bring about positive change in their lives by ridding themselves of negative thinking processes, attitudes and behaviors. Reading this book can only make us more peaceful human beings, whether we are incarcerated or living in the free world. This book can benefit all of us regardless of our status in life whether our bars are metal or mental. Healing Our Imprisoned Minds: A Peoples Guide to Hope and Freedom especially offers prisoners, their loved ones and the rest of us clear and simple techniques for achieving inner liberation and peace. It is truly a celebration of the human spirit.
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