Paper short abstract:

This paper positions positions anxiety as a frame characterized by extreme care through which we may view and understand the policy and practice of hospital safety logics and the thin experiential line between safety and danger at the heart of much emergency hospital work.

Paper long abstract:

In a psychiatric emergency department often filled to capacity with patients in acute states of psychiatric illness, the medical professionals at Los Angeles Public Hospital are trained to work in a state of flux and uncertainty. In the midst of carrying out their work in such frequently chaotic spaces, doctors, nurses, and clinical staff members must learn to carefully assess patient circumstances and interactions to minimize the risk of dangerous outcomes. In this paper, I mobilize linguistic and psychological anthropological techniques to interrogate the manner in which anxiety emerges and then frames the articulation and enactment of a “safe” and “therapeutic” hospital environment. Etymologically, anxiety has roots in ancient latin, signifying “extreme care.” Attending to emergence of anxiety both in the rhetoric of hospital policies and in the everyday interactions of hospital staff, this paper positions anxiety as a frame characterized by extreme care through which we may view and understand the practice of hospital safety logics and the thin experiential line between safety and danger at the heart of much emergency hospital work.