A dual memoir written by two lifelong friends who began working as mental health nurses in a large psychiatric facility in the 1970s. Their vivid recollections describe the intense, unsettling, and often poignant world they encountered behind institutional walls, after entering the profession almost by accident. In a time when psychiatric hospitals were overcrowded, underfunded, and governed by rigid routines, they also provided safety and a sense of community for long-term residents with ...