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2026
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20191251 |
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| author | Lynch, Brian |
| author_facet | Lynch, Brian |
| contents | <div> <div class="standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&_>_*]:min-w-0 gap-3 standard-markdown"> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Here it is:</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Descritption</strong></p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">What does the neurobiology of shame tell us about justice? This paper argues that restorative justice — one of the most significant reforms in modern criminal justice — has not yet followed its own logic to its honest conclusion.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Drawing on the neurophysiology of the lateral habenula, Silvan Tomkins' affect-script theory, and Robert Sapolsky's hard determinism, the paper offers a critique from inside the tradition: restorative practice is grounded in Tomkins' work, as David Moore's own foundational writings make explicit, and the habenular framework that explains why the circle works also reveals where it stops short. When the restorative circle is followed by a punitive sentence, a structural contradiction is created that the field has not fully examined. When the offender is asked to apologize for an act the neurobiology suggests they could not, at the deepest level, have avoided, the performance of contrition may be more honest than the theory behind it.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The paper traces the gradient from Nuremberg to Truth and Reconciliation to restorative justice to Scandinavian rehabilitation to the Maasai practice of surrounding a transgressor with their own goodness — each step a further expansion of the circle of responsibility toward its honest circumference. Lauren Abramson's community conferencing work in Baltimore is examined as an existence proof of what full expansion looks like in practice.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The paper also argues that medicine — the institution most explicitly committed to treating all who present without judgment of desert — has its own failure to reckon with, documented in the weight bias and addiction stigma literature.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The epigraphs are Edgar Lee Masters and David Smail. The conclusion returns to Masters: it is the way the people regard the theft of the apple that makes the boy what he is.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Written by a physician-scholar with five decades of clinical experience, in collaborative dialogue with Claude (Anthropic). Part of a series synthesizing Tomkins' discrete affect theory with lateral habenula neurophysiology.</p> </div> </div> |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_20191251 |
| institution | Zenodo |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
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| spellingShingle | Beyond the Circle: A Habenular Critique of Restorative Justice Lynch, Brian lateral habenula negative prdiction error affect theory shame Silvan Tomkins Donald Nthanson nuclear scripts restorative justice deservingness clause deteminism punitive justice criminal justice reform community conferencing addiction stigma <div> <div class="standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&_>_*]:min-w-0 gap-3 standard-markdown"> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Here it is:</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Descritption</strong></p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">What does the neurobiology of shame tell us about justice? This paper argues that restorative justice — one of the most significant reforms in modern criminal justice — has not yet followed its own logic to its honest conclusion.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Drawing on the neurophysiology of the lateral habenula, Silvan Tomkins' affect-script theory, and Robert Sapolsky's hard determinism, the paper offers a critique from inside the tradition: restorative practice is grounded in Tomkins' work, as David Moore's own foundational writings make explicit, and the habenular framework that explains why the circle works also reveals where it stops short. When the restorative circle is followed by a punitive sentence, a structural contradiction is created that the field has not fully examined. When the offender is asked to apologize for an act the neurobiology suggests they could not, at the deepest level, have avoided, the performance of contrition may be more honest than the theory behind it.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The paper traces the gradient from Nuremberg to Truth and Reconciliation to restorative justice to Scandinavian rehabilitation to the Maasai practice of surrounding a transgressor with their own goodness — each step a further expansion of the circle of responsibility toward its honest circumference. Lauren Abramson's community conferencing work in Baltimore is examined as an existence proof of what full expansion looks like in practice.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The paper also argues that medicine — the institution most explicitly committed to treating all who present without judgment of desert — has its own failure to reckon with, documented in the weight bias and addiction stigma literature.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The epigraphs are Edgar Lee Masters and David Smail. The conclusion returns to Masters: it is the way the people regard the theft of the apple that makes the boy what he is.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Written by a physician-scholar with five decades of clinical experience, in collaborative dialogue with Claude (Anthropic). Part of a series synthesizing Tomkins' discrete affect theory with lateral habenula neurophysiology.</p> </div> </div> |
| title | Beyond the Circle: A Habenular Critique of Restorative Justice |
| topic | lateral habenula negative prdiction error affect theory shame Silvan Tomkins Donald Nthanson nuclear scripts restorative justice deservingness clause deteminism punitive justice criminal justice reform community conferencing addiction stigma |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20191251 |