Organisational processes around the investigation of serious events

Abstract

SummaryThis editorial focuses on a psychosocial application of psychoanalytic thinking to the processes which are in place to investigate serious events in psychiatric healthcare. It argues that the structures and processes in place can be understood with reference to organisational defences and to the ‘actor–network theory’. A common reason for such an investigation is a completed suicide. It is suggested that defensive processes may occur in response to the anxieties associated with serious events such as suicide and are of concern in terms of psychiatric care retaining a capacity for emotionally involved practice.