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Madness and chaos in the culture of a therapeutic community

Jonathan Stephen Roger Leach (Department of Health and Social Care, UK Open University, Milton Keynes, UK)

Therapeutic Communities: The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities

ISSN: 0964-1866

Article publication date: 17 April 2019

Issue publication date: 23 April 2019

394

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.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank for their support and assistance to the members of the steering group of the Oxford Project on the Oral History of Mental Health Services in Oxfordshire: Peter Agulnik, Neil Armstrong, Craig Fees, John Hall, David Kennard and David Millard.

Citation

Leach, J.S.R. (2019), "Madness and chaos in the culture of a therapeutic community", Therapeutic Communities: The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 16-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/TC-04-2018-0006

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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