Hidden in plain sight on locked wards-on finding and being found

Abstract

Lost and falling, the feeling that life is disorienting: none of us escapes the experience. For those clinicians who venture on to inpatient wards, lost-ness takes on a special urgency. But what does it mean to "find" another? Surely feeling lost is at the heart of our existential search for grounding. And so how does one find oneself? And why is another so important in this self-search? This paper explores two brief encounters on an inpatient ward where the lost-ness of psychosis and despair cover the shock of unbearable feelings. Yet the intolerable story is displayed as both a symptom and a sign, inscribed in the body, an uncanny symbol hidden in plain sight. And here may be a way in, and a way out-here a person might be found.