Living ‘in between’ outside and inside: The forensic psychiatric unit as an impermanent assemblage

This paper presents analysis from a study of staff and patient experiences of the restrictive environments of a forensic psychiatric unit. The paper conceptualises the forensic unit as an impermanent assemblage, enacted in and through practices that hold a future life outside the unit simultaneously near, yet far. We show how the near-far relations between life inside and outside the unit operate in three ways; 1) in relation to the ‘care pathway’, 2) practices of dwelling, and 3) creating and maintaining connections to life ‘beyond’ the unit. The paper concludes with a discussion about possible ways to overcome the limitations to recovery that can arise through practices of impermanence.