Mad Insight celebrates the knowledge and wisdom inherent in mad states and mad experiences.
Insight is a term that is used in psychiatry. It is generally understood as “the capability of psychiatric patients to recognize and accept that they are suffering from a mental illness.”(ref)
Despite it frequently being used to justify coercion and forced treatment – by declaring a patient as ‘lacking insight’ – the concept of insight is ambiguous, poorly studied and rests on the bizarre notion that a psychiatrist’s perspective is objective while a patient’s is subjective.
As mad scholars, activists and pioneers, we assert that madness offers its own legitimate knowledge, understanding and experiencing of the world. We celebrate mad knowledge and mad perspectives. We offer the term mad insight as ‘the capability of psychiatric patients to experience the world and express themselves legitimately on their own terms.’
