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Mad pride
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 encourages individuals with mental illness to be proud of their 'Mad' identity. In recent years, Mad pride has increasingly aligned with the neurodiversity movement, recognizing the interconnected nature of mental health advocacy and neurodivergent experiences.
Mad pride activists seek to reclaim terms such as "mad", "nutter", crazy and "psycho" from misuse, such as in tabloid newspapers, and to transform them from negative to positive descriptors. 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). 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.
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, "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".
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.
Mad pride's founding activists in the UK included Simon Barnett, Mark Roberts, Pete Shaughnessy, and Robert Dellar.
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."
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Mad pride
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 encourages individuals with mental illness to be proud of their 'Mad' identity. In recent years, Mad pride has increasingly aligned with the neurodiversity movement, recognizing the interconnected nature of mental health advocacy and neurodivergent experiences.
Mad pride activists seek to reclaim terms such as "mad", "nutter", crazy and "psycho" from misuse, such as in tabloid newspapers, and to transform them from negative to positive descriptors. 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). 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.
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, "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".
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.
Mad pride's founding activists in the UK included Simon Barnett, Mark Roberts, Pete Shaughnessy, and Robert Dellar.
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."