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Mental Health Uncertainty and Inevitability pp 137–165Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Institutional and Emotion Work in Forensic Psychiatry: Detachment and Desensitisation

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Abstract

Mental health professionals are frequently tasked with balancing care, safety and security. They are obliged to meet professional, organisational and institutional standards. Yet these roles, expectations and practices are often contentious, whilst personal feelings and values are often ignored. This raises questions about processes that attempt to reconcile personal, professional and organisation conflict, about how workers manage their emotions, and ultimately, what impacts these have upon those conducting such work, as well as those receiving care.

Forensic psychiatry is a pluralistic institution where care and containment are precariously balanced.

High secure hospitals offer a unique context in which to study such tensions. The social theories of institutional and emotion work provide useful frameworks from which to study the interactions between institutions, emotions and actions in psychiatry.

Interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals working in such a setting. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used. Workers’ feelings and experiences were explored in relation to their professional roles, organisational expectations and wider institutional contexts. In doing so, the relationships between institutions, emotions and actions may be better understood and institutional and emotion work theories developed, thus providing important iterative connections between sociology and psychiatry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham,, Nottingham, UK

    Ada Hui

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  1. Ada Hui
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Correspondence to Ada Hui .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Hugh Middleton

  2. School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Melanie Jordan

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Hui, A. (2017). Institutional and Emotion Work in Forensic Psychiatry: Detachment and Desensitisation. In: Middleton, H., Jordan, M. (eds) Mental Health Uncertainty and Inevitability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43970-9_6

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