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The Comforts of Evil

Dangerous Personalities in High-Security Hospitals and the Horror Film

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Forensic Psychiatry

Abstract

This chapter reflects recent UK legislative proposals for the detention of dangerous individuals with severe personality disorder as a starting point for deriving insight into the deployment of the terminology of evil in everyday discourse. We concern ourselves specifically with the public safety role of high-security hospitals and consequent contribution to the assuagement of collective anxieties. This, in turn, is linked to Julia Kristeva’s notion of the abject, with an analagous relationship to anxiety containment seen in people’s encounters with horror movies.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mental Health Division, Department of Nursing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

    Mick McKeown

  2. Psychological Therapy Service, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Trust, Merseyside, UK

    Mark Stowell-Smith

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  1. Mick McKeown
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  2. Mark Stowell-Smith
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health and Social Care, University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Tom Mason

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© 2006 Humana Press Inc.

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McKeown, M., Stowell-Smith, M. (2006). The Comforts of Evil. In: Mason, T. (eds) Forensic Psychiatry. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-006-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-006-5_6

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-449-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-006-5

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