4/ Editorial introductions

For any practitioner subscribing to the views endorsed so far, the journey is likely to be a solitary and difficult one (unless, that is, they are fortunate enough to land up in a working environment similarly endorsing these views - but as already emphasised, environments like this are rare). Such a practitioner will encounter many incidents of practice which is at best irrelevant for the person supposed to be being healed, at worst downright damaging. What are the options open to someone in this position? In chapter nine Ben Davidson argues that there may come a point for any of us when we are compelled on moral grounds to break the terms of our contract with an employer and blow the whistle. The experience of speaking up for patients when it involves going into conflict with one's managers or colleagues is inevitably painful. Ben attempts to convey a true picture of the personal cost of whistleblowing. He also discusses whether it is truly possible to act as patient advocate when our interests (eg having a stress-free life, even keeping our job) are at stake. He delineates at both a societal and a personal level the place of dissent. Ben finishes his chapter and concludes section one of the book with a recent history of public servants' attempts to effect change by going public when their conscience dictated there was no other way forward, and by looking ahead to the second section of the text, in which clinicians offer their accounts of work they have undertaken which may well have brought them into conflict with the establishment.