Pure Mental

Witnessing systemic neglect and ill treatment while working in a mental asylum, a young man struggles with his conscience and is forced to re-evaluate his core beliefs about himself and his perception of others.

The story is set in the early 1970s, the era of flower power and free love. It is the time of John Lennon’s mantra, ‘All you need is Love’ and Bob Dylan’s, ‘The Times They are a Changin’.
It follows the journey of Jim, a young and naïve Irishman, to London to start his training as a psychiatric nurse in a large mental asylum.
Jim was shocked with what he saw behind the high walls of the institution. The world he had entered seemed frozen in time, bypassed by the major changes taking place outside of the institution. The asylum was an enclave where intimidation, coercion and violence towards inmates were accepted practices. Staff wielded their power indiscriminately and were answerable to nobody.
Ironically Jim also experienced another side of this world where there was mateship, laughter and camaraderie and even romance. He felt accepted and valued by his new mates. He was becoming one of the boys, the ‘Broxton Boys’.
However there was a disturbing side to becoming one of the boys. There was a price to pay. He had to put aside his conscience and adopt an attitude that was lacking in humanity.
His growing acceptance of abuse as normal was abruptly challenged on meeting up with another worker. It was Matt, an ex-inmate from a similar institution, with a mission in life - to bring about change in the way inmates were treated.
Jim was confronted by the realisation that fitting in with his mates meant becoming complicit in what was happening. He just couldn’t continue telling himself that he was ‘just passing through’ as an excuse for doing nothing and accepting things as they were. He had to decide which side he was on – his mates, his colleagues and a good life or his conscience and Matt. After uncomfortable soul searching he agreed to go along with Matt.
Their plan was to expose the ill-treatment practices of the asylum. It was a risky plan. In the short time he was working in the asylum there, Jim had become very aware of the power of the staff and their resistance to change. After all the asylum had successfully resisted change for many decades.
Informing on staff would put them in danger. ‘Snitching’ on their mates was the greatest crime they could commit. If discovered repercussions would be savage.
The stakes were high and Jim doggedly clung to the hope that their efforts, however meagre, would eventually lead to the undoing of this abusive and corrupt institution.