This study aims to analyze criminal recidivism from the perspective of Freudian

psychoanalysis. The purpose of this research is to understand why prisoners,

after serving their sentences, return to criminal practice. For this, the theory of
repetition compulsion elaborated by Freud was presented in order to prove that
unconscious psychological mechanisms lead the subject to repeat behaviors
that lead him to failure. The hypothesis raised by this study is that
psychoanalysis can contribute to the reduction of recidivism rates through the
implementation of analytical listening in prisons as a form of treatment for
prisoners, so that they no longer fall into crime. In this bibliographic research,
the deductive method was used, in which scientific articles, periodical articles,
books and academic papers were used. Once these objectives were achieved,
it was possible to demonstrate the importance and the applicability of this study:
enable analytical listening to inmates based on the effective performance of
psychoanalysts in prisons.

Keywords: criminal recidivism, psychoanalysis, repetition compulsion,

unconscious, prison system