People live, think and act in everyday life. In the process, they experience a shared life-world. The essence of psychiatric nursing is to understand a person=s subjective reality, recognize motivation for change and help redefine the meaning of identity. But what does ?understanding= mean, what approaches to thinking and acting are available for clinical psychiatric nursing? Asking the question in this manner requires approaches from nursing, social science and the humanities. This edited collection of essays aims to provide psychiatric nurses with well-founded and innovative perspectives on possible ways of understanding mentally ill people.