![]() It is as if the very atmosphere of the ward is contaminated by a terrifying yet invisible environmental pollution which cannot easily be symbolised, nor can it be avoided or ignored –regardless of whether or not one is a wearer of the ‘white coat’. As was the case with Foucault’s historical lazar-houses and the fictional citizens of Camus’ plague-stricken town, the anxiety of the perverse panopticon gives rise to a very real psycho-somatic fear of relationally transmitted dis-eases as well as the omnipresent threat that it might manifest itself as real physical violence. In their contaminated states of mind, they then present a clear and present danger to those who they watch over. Rather than socialising, the perverse panopticon provides a context within which pro-social forces can be corrupted and staff, as the arbiters of some of these would-be pro-social forces, can become contaminated. This reciprocal process of observation and scrutiny in itself creates what we have called a perverse panopticon (Scanlon and Adlam 2011a) in which all are observed and related to by all – through conscious and intentional scrutiny, as well as the more primitive forms of unconscious communication rooted in processes of projective and introjective identification. ![]() Nursing stations that were set up to enable nurses to observe patients, have also become goldfish bowls within which nursing staff can be constantly observed and scrutinised by them. ![]()
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