Court Ordered Incompetence: Conversational Organization in Involuntary Commitment Hearings

This study analyzes the organization of discourse in involuntary mental hospitalization hearings. I examine conversation between attorneys and witnesses as they collaborate to produce evidence upon which determinations of grave disability are based. Patients' courtroom talk is frequently cited as evidence of their interactional competence or incompetence. My analysis suggests that, while this talk is typically considered to be patients' individual production, it is interactional activity consisting of conversational practice that makes documents of competence or incompetence visible.