The oppressed internalise “the image of the oppressor and his guidelines”, and become fearful of freedom. The oppressed are denied the chance to demonstrate their “responsibility” the very act of trying drugs even once is deemed irresponsible, and those who use drugs are frequently described as immoral and damaging to society.įreire highlights how the objectification of the oppressed in society, alongside uncritical models of education, results in the internalisation of oppression. Specific to drug prohibition, this objectification is further codified by legally prohibiting (by criminalising) drug use.

Such rhetoric is common in drug-related public discourse the dehumanisation of drug users transforms them into objects to surveil, discipline and punish, through either prison, stigma, coerced treatment, or anything in between. These marginals need to be ‘integrated’, ‘incorporated’ into the healthy society that they have ‘forsaken’”. The need to objectify humans is driven by their materialist nature, and the belief that “Humanity is a thing, and they possess it as an exclusive right”.Ĭonversely, the 'oppressed are regarded as the pathology of the healthy society, which must therefore adjust these ‘incompetent and lazy’ folk to its own patterns by changing their mentality. In Freire’s book, the oppressors’ consciousness desires to “transform everything surrounding it into an object of its domination'.

Freire perceives the current world as one entrenched in an ideology of oppression, defining oppression as: “Any situation in which ‘A’ objectively exploits ‘B’ or hinders his and her pursuit of self-affirmation as a responsible person… with the individual’s… vocation to be more fully human”.

Pedagogy of the oppressed 1970