Making a spectacle of herself: reading community mental health nursing assessments

The metaphor of mapping is used in this paper to examine the discursive construction of women whose nudity in public places (making a spectacle of herself) provides dilemmas for community mental health nurses required to make assessments of these women's ability to function in the community. Excerpts from stories provided by the nurses are used to demonstrate the complexity of the decision-making processes and the limits to the choices they perceive they can make.