ABSTRACT
Life within the High Security Hospitals (previously called the Special Hospitals, or just ‘the specials’—large institutions with a chequered history, populated by patients like the personality disordered who in an everyday sense appear to be normal, although their behaviour is not-can only appear strange to the outsider. It is so radically different from everyday life that one interviewee referred to it as ‘Special Hospital country’, in other words a land of different customs, traditions, language and values. The sense of difference is exacerbated by the high walls, the ritual security measures and searches on entry, and the profound moral implications of the residents’ previous crimes.
