Esther

This is the first of four chapters in what makes up Part I of the book—the star cases. Esther was an experienced nurse manager at an acute psychiatric unit. She spoke willingly, seemingly without hesitation—and filters—about life both inside and outside the clinic, including about situations involving the use of coercion. She came across as an open book and admitted that she often spoke before thinking—a trait of hers that could occasionally get her into trouble. The chapter is a careful reading of her narrative account. Part of the rationale for the lengthy and detailed individual case write-up is to honor the sequence and manner of telling of the narrator, but also to demonstrate the richness and complexity in a single professional’s narrative account. Hence, there are many quotes and narratives included. This is both to ensure transparency and idiosyncrasy and to privilege the phenomenological aim of the study. The latter calls for an eliciting of the complexities evident in the account, before subjecting it, together with all cases, to interpretation and theoretical discussion in later chapters.