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Leach, Jonathan
(2019).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/TC-04-2018-0006
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of staff members working in a psychiatric therapeutic community in relation to ideas of “madness” and “chaos”.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper is a qualitative study based on oral history group witness seminars.
Findings: The findings indicate that many of the participants experienced working in a therapeutic community as both exciting and unsettling; some found themselves questioning their own mental health at the time. Despite a sense of “madness” and chaos in the life of the community, there was also a feeling that it provided a containing environment for some very disturbed patients.
Originality/value: This study is unusual in drawing upon staff member’s perceptions of their own relationship to “madness” in response to being involved in the life of a therapeutic community.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
