SURVIVOR? MAD? OR ANTI-PSYCHIATRY?

[julie gosling]

Alternate Mental Health Communties
APR 29. Posted by prideinmadness reblogged in MHHEHUB by Julie Gosling

http://prideinmadness.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/alternate-mental-hea...

I say “alternate” for a lack of a better word. Chapter 4 in Mad Matters is called, “What Makes Us a Community? Reflection on Building Solidarity in Anti-sanist Praxis” by Shaindl Diamond. She talks about 3 constituencies she researched in Toronto, Ontario that engage in alternate ways of engaging, politicizing and theorizing about mental health/illness. These constituencies are: the psychiatric survivor constituency, the Mad constituency, and the antipsychiatry constituency. I personally would place myself in the Mad constituency.

What I liked about Diamond’s essay (so far, I’m not finished) is that she broken down each group very well and it has helped give me a better understanding what each group stands for, where I fit in and why it is difficult for the groups to work together.

Psychiatric Survivor:

heart of the political community

represents those who are deeply affected by the practice of biological psychiatry and sanism

Not organized around a shared political ideology


A psychiatric survivor run company:

prioritize connecting with people who have experienced the system and improving the conditions of their lives

peer support and consciousness raising initiatives are seen as foundations of the community

major focus on stopping forced psychiatric interventions, ending stigma and discrimination, creating accessible survivor-positive employment, affordable housing options, and other non-psychiatric alternatives

Examples of psychiatric survivor initiatives:
Ontario Council of Alternative Businesses,
The Gerstein Crisis Centre
Sound Times

Mad:

newer phenomenon within the community

reflects contemporary complexities, divisions, and theoretical trends

evolved out of psychiatric survivor constituency

shift from focusing psychiatric oppression to the development of positive understandings of Mad identity and experience

Mad is frequently used as an umbrella term to represent a diversity of identities that describe people who have been labelled and treated as crazy

common emphasis on the oppression faced by people who have been oppressed as crazy
the term covers a wide spectrum of discourses about madness and liberation

Central concerns are similar to psychiatric survivors, accessible employment, and affordable housing

greater emphasis on exploring and celebrating individual experiences of madness and developing Mad culture

Example of Mad initiative:
Mad Pride Toronto


Antipsychiatry:

based on a rich history of resistance efforts

primary goal is to abolish institutional psychiatry, or to at least undermine its power and authority

An antipsychiatry conference The Madvocates spoke at in New York in 2011 (we indentify as Mad but miggle with many different people)

often draw upon the theoretical and empirical work of professionals and academics who are critical of psychiatry as well as personal experiences of psychiatrized people

main organizing principle is focused on political ideology, not identity politics discourses about shared experience

open to all who are interested in undermining psychiatric dominance whether they have been psychiatrized or not

Examples of antipsychiatry initiatives:

Ontario Coalition Against Electroshock
Resistance Against Psychiatry
the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault


About prideinmadness

http://prideinmadness.wordpress.com

I'm 23 years old and live in Toronto, Ontario. I have risen above my psychiatric labels and now use my experience and passion to help improve the conditions for those with mental health issues and changes societies views on mental illness.