Disability and Madness - special edition of Disability Studies Quarterly

[Jill Anderson]

This special edition of Disability Studies Quarterly - on Disability and Madness - may be of interest.  Full text freely accessible online: 

http://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/index

 

Editor's Introduction, Winter 2013

This issue of Disability Studies Quarterly takes up the intersections of Disability Studies and what might be termed "Madness Studies." While a formal field of "Madness Studies" may be in question, this phrasing builds on the Mad Pride movement and the activist works that preceded it. These activist works and efforts revolved largely around counteracting the shame of "mental illness" and sharing lived experiences to create a community of people who had been written off as crazy, unbalanced, and dangerous. As a community of scholars, activist, and artists who would have been cast off in those categories, we owe much to their courage and activism. From those efforts, come recent scholarly works that theorize experiences of madness. These writings have drawn heavily on Disability Studies to trouble the borders of normal/abnormal and sane/insane. Additionally, these works inspired the creation of this issue to bring together scholars working on madness and disability.

Within this issue are eight articles that dwell at the intersections of Madness Studies and Disability Studies. In the issue's first article, Nev Jones and Robyn Lewis Brown consider the consequences that stem from the absence of consumer/survivor/ex-patient (C/S/X) perspectives in academic discourse. We move from there to three articles from Shayda Kafai, PhoebeAnn Wolframe, and John Derby that take an authoethnographic approach to theorizing the experience of psychiatric diversity. Scott Walin's work on the performance of madness in "Next to Normal" offers a unique perspective that blends material from the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical with his experiences as a social worker. The next three articles offer different perspectives around madness. Elizabeth Donaldson's work on LSD as a psychomimetic is a fascinating piece on the ways that early psychiatrists attempted to mimic the experience of schizophrenia and other diagnoses that share hallucinogenic components. Merrick Daniel Pilling's article draws on the intersections of madness and queerness in the work place as it related to disclosure and coming out. Finally, Benjamin Bishop explores notions of "recovery" and "inclusion" through literature on gardening and nature. To the extent that anyone can take "pride" in the work of others, we are very proud to present this collection of works on madness and disability. We hope you will share in our enthusiasm while reading this issue of DSQ.

Noam Ostrander
Bruce Henderson

[julie gosling]

I cannot download - I typed in Lancs\ username and password but I am told info is incorrect - is there a technical helpline for MHHE please?

[Jill Anderson]

Hi Julie

I'm not sure why the link was not working.  Have reloaded it and hope it is fine now.  Am pasting it here too:

http://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/index

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Best wishes,

Jill

[julie gosling]

Thanks Jill for assisting me to access this - I am in there and reading avidly - I would particularly like to recommend the article 'The Madwoman in the Academy, or, Revealing the Invisible Straightjacket: Theorizing and Teaching Saneism and Sane Privilege' - by PhebeAnn Marjory Wolframe - and indeed a favourite of mine from the work of Peggy Mackintosh: 'Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack' - which Wolframe refers to and which can be found on the Beyond Whiteness site - both articles are extremely useful for critically exploring issues of mental well-being and madness within an anti-oppressive framework

[Jill Anderson]

Thanks for the recommendation.  Looking forward to reading that. Like the author, I have used 'the Yellow Wallpaper' in teaching and found that people really engage with it - NB It is 1p (+ p&p) on Amazon!

[julie gosling]

a heartbreaking book which moves me to tears still at the memory of it