Mad Pride is a mass movement of current and former users of mental health services, as well as those who have never used mental health services but are aligned with the Mad Pride framework. The movement advocates that individuals with mental illness should be proud of their 'mad' identity. [1] In recent years, Mad Pride has increasingly aligned with the neurodiversity movement, recognizing the interconnected nature of mental health advocacy and neurodivergent experiences. [2]
Mad Pride activists seek to reclaim terms such as "mad", "nutter", and "psycho" from misuse, such as in tabloid newspapers, and to transform them from negative to positive descriptors. [3] Through mass media campaigns, Mad Pride activists seek to re-educate the general public on the causes of mental disorders and the experiences of those using the mental health system.
Mad Pride was formed in 1993 in response to local community prejudices towards people with a psychiatric history living in boarding homes in the Parkdale area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; since then, an event has been held in Toronto every year (except for 1996). [4] A similar movement began around the same time in the United Kingdom, and by the late 1990s, Mad Pride events were organized around the globe, including in Australia, Brazil, France, Ireland, Portugal, Madagascar, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States. Events draw thousands of participants, according to MindFreedom International, a United States mental health advocacy organization that promotes and tracks events spawned by the movement. [3]
Mad Studies grew out of mad pride and the psychiatric survivor framework, and focuses on developing scholarly thinking around "mental health" by academics who self-identify as mad. As noted in Mad matters: a critical reader in Canadian mad studies, [5] "Mad Studies can be defined in general terms as a project of inquiry, knowledge production, and political action devoted to the critique and transcendence of psy-centred ways of thinking, behaving, relating, and being". [5]
The first known event, held on 18 September 1993, was called "Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day, and was organized by and for people who identified as survivors, consumers, or ex-patients of psychiatric practices.[ citation needed ]
Mad Pride's founding activists in the UK include Simon Barnett, [6] Pete Shaughnessy, and Robert Dellar.
Mad Pride: A celebration of mad culture records the early Mad Pride movement. On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System, published in 1978 by Judi Chamberlin, is a foundational text in the Mad Pride movement, although it was published before the movement was launched.
Mad Pride was launched shortly before a book of the same name, Mad Pride: A celebration of mad culture, published in 2000. On May 11, 2008, Gabrielle Glaser documented Mad Pride in The New York Times . Glaser stated, "Just as gay-rights activists reclaimed the word queer as a badge of honor rather than a slur, these advocates proudly call themselves mad; they say their conditions do not preclude them from productive lives."
Mad Pride and disability pride are both celebrated in July in many countries, including Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. There is a connection to Bastille Day, a French national holiday which occurs annually on July 14 to commemorate the Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. This event was adopted a symbol of Mad Pride, representing liberation and freedom. [7]
The Mad Pride movement has spawned recurring cultural events in Toronto, London, Dublin, and other cities around the world. These events often include live music, poetry readings, film screenings, and street theatre. "Bed push" protests are one form of street threatre unique to Mad Pride events; their aim is to raise awareness about the barriers that prevent people from accessing quality treatment – which disproportionately affect people who are oppressed for other aspects such as race or class – as well as the widespread use of force in psychiatric hospitals. Past events have included British journalist Jonathan Freedland [6] and novelist Clare Allan. [8] Mad Pride cultural events take a variety of forms, such as the South London collective Creative Routes, the Chipmunka Publishing enterprise, and the many works of Dolly Sen. [9]
A Bed Push is a method of activism employed by multiple mental health agencies and advocates as a method of raising awareness about psychiatric care. Activists wheel a gurney through public spaces to provoke discussion about mental health care. MindFreedom has a recipe for a successful Bed Push on their website, urging participants to remain peaceful but also ensure they are seen, using attention-grabbing tactics such as blowing horns, mild traffic disruptions, and loud music. [10] Often patients in psychiatric care feel silenced and powerless, so the act of intentionally securing visibility and showing off resilience is one method of regaining dignity. [11]
Mad Pride Week in Toronto is recognized by the city itself. [12] The festivities surrounding this week are highlighted by the Mad Pride Bed Push, which typically takes place on the 14th of July. The event is staged at Toronto's Queen Street West "to raise public awareness about the use of force and lack of choice for people ensnared in the Ontario mental health system". [5] This week is officially run by Toronto Mad Pride which partners a number of mental health agencies in the city. In recent years, some advocates have pushed for Parkdale, Toronto to be renamed MAD! Village, to reclaim pride in its surrounding communities' long history of struggle with mental health and addictions. [12]
A series of bed push events take place around London each year.
The Psychiatric Patient-Built Wall Tours take place in Toronto, at the CAMH facility on Queen St West. The tours show the patient-built walls from the 19th century that are located at present day CAMH. The purpose of the tours is to give a history on the lives of the patients who built the walls, and bring attention to the harsh realities of psychiatry.
Geoffrey Reaume and Heinz Klein first came up with the idea of walking tours as part of a Mad Pride event in 2000. The first wall tour occurred on what is now known as Mad Pride Day, on July 14, 2000, with an attendance of about fifty people. Reaume solely leads the tours, and they have grown from annual events for Mad Pride, to occurring several times throughout the year in all non-winter months. [13]
Anti-psychiatry, sometimes spelled antipsychiatry, is a movement based on the view that psychiatric treatment can be often more damaging than helpful to patients. The term anti-psychiatry was coined in 1912, and the movement emerged in the 1960s, highlighting controversies about psychiatry. Objections include the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis, the questionable effectiveness and harm associated with psychiatric medications, the failure of psychiatry to demonstrate any disease treatment mechanism for psychiatric medication effects, and legal concerns about equal human rights and civil freedom being nullified by the presence of diagnosis. Historical critiques of psychiatry came to light after focus on the extreme harms associated with electroconvulsive therapy and insulin shock therapy. The term "anti-psychiatry" is in dispute and often used to dismiss all critics of psychiatry, many of whom agree that a specialized role of helper for people in emotional distress may at times be appropriate, and allow for individual choice around treatment decisions.
The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct is a 1961 book by the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, in which the author criticizes psychiatry and argues against the concept of mental illness. It received much publicity, and has become a classic, well known as an argument that "mentally ill" is a label which psychiatrists have used against people "disabled by living" rather than truly having a disease.
The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all people with disabilities.
The neurodiversity paradigm is a framework for understanding human brain function that recognizes the diversity within sensory processing, motor abilities, social comfort, cognition, and focus as neurobiological differences. This diversity falls on a spectrum of neurocognitive differences. The neurodiversity paradigm argues that diversity in human cognition is normal and that some conditions generally classified as disorders, such as autism, are differences and disabilities that are not necessarily pathological. Neurotypical individuals are those who fall within the average range of functioning and thinking.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is a psychiatric teaching hospital located in Toronto and ten community locations throughout the province of Ontario, Canada. It reports being the largest research facility in Canada for mental health and addictions. The hospital was formed in 1998 from the amalgamation of four separate institutions – the Queen Street Mental Health Centre, the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, the Addiction Research Foundation, and the Donwood Institute. It is Canada's largest mental health teaching hospital, and the only stand-alone psychiatric emergency department in Ontario. CAMH has 90 distinct clinical services across inpatient, outpatient, day treatment, and partial hospitalization models. CAMH has been the site of major advancements in psychiatric research, including the discovery of the Dopamine receptor D2.
The autism rights movement, also known as the autistic acceptance movement, is a social movement allied with the disability rights movement. It emphasizes the neurodiversity paradigm, viewing autism as a set of naturally occurring variations in human cognition, a disability with both strengths and weaknesses, rather than as a disease to be cured or a disorder to be treated, diverging from the medical model of disability.
MindFreedom International is an international coalition of over one hundred grassroots groups and thousands of individual members from fourteen nations. Based in the United States, it was founded in 1990 to advocate against forced medication, medical restraints, and involuntary electroconvulsive therapy. Its stated mission is to protect the rights of people who have been labeled with psychiatric disorders. Membership is open to anyone who supports human rights, including mental health professionals, advocates, activists, and family members. MindFreedom has been recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a human rights NGO with Consultative Roster Status.
Deinstitutionalisation is the process of replacing long-stay psychiatric hospitals with less isolated community mental health services for those diagnosed with a mental disorder or developmental disability. In the 1950's and 1960's, it led to the closure of many psychiatric hospitals, as patients were increasingly cared for at home, in halfway houses, group homes, and clinics, in regular hospitals, or not at all.
The psychiatric survivors movement is a diverse association of individuals who either currently access mental health services, or who have experienced interventions by psychiatry that were unhelpful, harmful, abusive, or illegal.
Patricia Ann Capponi, was a Canadian writer and an advocate for mental health issues and poverty issues in Canada.
Judi Chamberlin was an American activist, leader, organizer, public speaker and educator in the psychiatric survivors movement. Her political activism followed her involuntary confinement in a psychiatric facility in the 1960s. She was the author of On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System, which is a foundational text in the Mad Pride movement.
Sanism, saneism, mentalism, or psychophobia refers to the discrimination and oppression of people based on actual or perceived mental disorder or cognitive impairment. This discrimination and oppression are based on numerous factors such as stereotypes about neurodiversity. Mentalism impacts individuals with autism, learning disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, stuttering, tics, intellectual disability, and other cognitive impairments.
Will Hall is an American mental health advocate, counselor, writer, and teacher. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he is involved in the recovery approach in mental health and is an organizer within the psychiatric survivors movement. Hall advocates the recovery approach to mental illness and is involved in the treatment and social response to psychosis.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the psychiatric survivors movement:
Peter Anthony Shaughnessy was a British mental health activist and one of the founders of Mad Pride, a group of mental health activists who reclaimed terms such as "mad" and "nutter" from misuse, and campaigned for the rights of the mentally ill.
Peter Lehmann, D. Phil. h.c., is an author, social scientist, publisher, and an independent freelance activist in humanistic anti-psychiatry, living in Berlin, Germany.
David William Oaks is a civil rights activist and co-founder and former executive director of Eugene, Oregon-based MindFreedom International.
Mad studies is a field of scholarship, theory, and activism about the lived experiences, history, cultures, and politics about people who may identify as mad, mentally ill, psychiatric survivors, consumers, service users, patients, neurodivergent, and disabled. Mad Studies originated from consumer/survivor movements organized in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and in other parts of the world. The methods for inquiry draw from a number of academic disciplines such as women's studies, critical race studies, indigenous epistemologies, queer studies, psychological anthropology, and ethnography. This field shares theoretical similarities to critical disability studies, psychopolitics, and critical social theory. The academic movement formed, in part, as a response to recovery movements, which many mad studies scholars see as being "co-opted" by mental health systems. In 2021 the first academic journal of Mad Studies, The International Journal of Mad Studies, was launched.
Diana Michele Capponi was a Canadian mental health activist, psychiatric survivor, and community leader.
Robert Chapman is an English philosopher, teacher and writer, best known for their work on neurodiversity studies and the philosophy of disability.
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