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The members of the group:
| Jim Sadler | a street orderly | from Chapter 2 |
| Gloria Wall | a voluntary charity shop lady | 3 |
| Ghost of Fred Wall | her late husband | 3 |
| Roy Wood | a motor mechanic | 4 |
| Mrs Edith Cook and Mrs Dora Cook | housewives | 5 |
| Mr Rogers | businessman | 6 |
| Mrs Spriggs | housewife | 7 |
| Conrad Dabrowska | engineer | 8 |
| Henry Lake | factory hand | 9 |
| Ann Lake | librarian | 9 |
| Mrs Ellen Cole | coil winder, retired | 10 |
Conrad. Shall I start? Now we've all read each other's stories, what's the general opinion? What do you all think?
Jim. He always was difficult to follow, but he did try. My Mum thought he was a good doctor.
Mrs Wall. I went to see him after my first breakdown, and I liked talking to him, but my Fred got suspicious. He was a bit like you Roy, he thought it was all rubbish, said he'd get himself into trouble one day putting everything down to nerves.
Mrs Spriggs. Don't talk to me about nerves. That horrible psychiatrist, did you see what he wrote about me?
Mrs Cole. I don't know anything about nerves, that's one thing my family never suffered from. Look what Nina went through, that was enough to give anyone a nervous breakdown, that was real suffering, not just the imagination …
Henry Lake. They say it's worse when it's in the mind. I had something on my mind about Sheila, my ex-wife. I thought I wasn't that kiddy's father, but she said I was imagining it.
Jim. My Mum used to imagine that our Dad was having an affair with someone else.
Roy. What about when I got stuck in that lay-by. I said I felt
boxed-in. I never could understand why, when I asked him why my nerves affect what I love most, cars, he said they were my parents.