This book presents an existential and psychosocial interpretation of the experiences of mental health care practitioners whose work involves use of coercion. Through in-depth case studies carried out in Norway, and theoretical discussions, it examines how the use of coercion is not merely directed by laws and regulations, but also by the situated subjectivities of the practitioners, and the wider contexts informing them. It demonstrates how the inner and outer worlds, the psychic and the social, and the existential and the cultural, all impact the professionals' experience and capacity to...