it's actually from politicial activst and theater artist Augusto Boal's writings. He pioneered a form of political theatre called Theatre of the Oppressed to workshop ideas for oppressed people to take power back from their oppressors. You get actors to role play a scenario and then the audience makes suggestions, or even tags in to take the actors place with what they would do in the scenario, and the role play becomes a debate, too, with people being given turns to describe their solution.

He claimed that many people were policed by the cop in the head, that would inhibit people from feeling free and able to do what they want even when on their own