ABSTRACT
The experience of mental distress is a drama. Indeed, one cannot imagine any more dramatic turn of events than the prospect or experience of losing one’s mind. No wonder that Shakespeare included so many illustrations of madness in his plays. Similarly, the organisation and delivery of mental health services are part of that drama. Although there is considerable investment in the idea that mental health care can, in some way, be scientific, it is far more like drama and literature. The experience of madness and our attempts to respond to the distress of madness, whether as professionals, family or friends, are invariably full of ‘high drama’.
