4/ Editorial introductions

Notwithstanding the objections in the previous chapter, psychiatry is charged by the state to control the behaviour of people who are, as a result of their 'mental illness', a danger to themselves or others. Such people are 'held', often against their will, in psychiatric institutions. Richard Lakeman and Brenda Curzon here explore nurses' compromised position against a backdrop of barely compatible pressures and influences, professional, legal, social and political, if they try to offer care rather than enforce control. The chapter focuses on the construction of dangerousness, balancing intrapsychic and social interpretations of what makes people violent, and asks to what extent is 'dangerousness', in any event, 'in the eye of the beholder'. Clinical case study material illustrates the particular challenges faced by nurses in a prison setting, but the institutional difficulties for any nurse trying to care rather than control are underlined.