Abstract: This paper will examine how one woman, Madeleine's narrative can be constructed as symptomatic of the diagnosis of schizophrenia and how it can also be read from other perspectives, particularly a post-structural feminist one. The readings are presented as possibilities for understanding the woman's experiences and the implications of this for mental health nursing practice. A post-structural feminist reading acknowledges the gendered experiences of subjectivity and how those experiences are constructed in language.The purpose of this paper is to identify for mental health nursing practice an approach which recognises the figurative and literal characteristics of language in order to provide nursing care which positions the individual's experience of mental distress as central. This requires an acknowledgment of Madeleine's path into mental distress rather than simply a categorisation of what is observed in a clinical setting. Intervention may need to include a range of strategies: medical and non-medical, psychotherapeutic and social, physical and environmental. It may also require the provision of sanctuary and security while these options are explored