ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Rowan Jones’ dual role as patient and mental healthcare professional. She finds that as a professional, bureaucratic tasks take precedence over care. This includes producing notes and other forms of documentation. As a patient, Rowan knows that notes are, to use Frankfurt’s phrase, bullshit. But as a member of staff, she finds she needs to believe them to do her job. This is an instance of the power of bureaucratic affordances. These affordances make shape perceptions, priorities and values to such a degree that they can change Rowan’s mind. In this way institutional forces turn both staff and patients into strategic bullshitters.
