When good intentions are not enough: A successful mentor-mentee relation requires a deliberated practice

Inspired by a neo -Vygoskian approach, this article discusses the use of a mentoring scheme at EXIT, a Swedish organisation supporting neo-Nazis’ disengagement from the extremist right. EXIT links mentees – individuals in the process of leaving the extreme right – to mentors – employees who are former neo-Nazis. The article illuminates why good intentions and a shared past between mentor and mentee are not enough for a development-oriented relation to occur; supporting mentees struggling with the outcomes of their involvement in the extremist right requires a deliberate practice. The main argument of the article is that for mentors to contribute to mentees’ development and reintegration into democratic society, they need to have contextualised and reinterpreted their own narrative of (dis)engagement and to combine it with a deliberate practice when interacting with mentees.