This little encyclopaedia of Madness is a non-academic introduction to ideas within Mad Studies that can offer an alternative to current resources, like MIND, and their more normative understanding of distress.
Madness can be an isolating experience, especially when we are forced to solely accept psychiatric views to make sense of it. The psychiatric gaze threatening to isolate us from others and our own understanding of ourselves. This potentially leads to feelings that we have little agency to define our experiences in meaningful terms.
The Mad movement looks to counter such alienating experiences, stretching language and introducing concepts which can help us to reframe our understanding of distress. This offers the hope that we can be empowered to approach our dalliances with madness in a more nuanced way.
The resource provided here aspires to be a place where ideas surrounding madness and distress from a Mad perspective can be grouped together and find a home. Offering people new opportunities to develop their understanding of Mad experiences and how they are approached.
It’s very much a work in progress so if you have any ideas/comments/complaints that you would like to contribute just get in touch and let us know!
For Mad people, from Mad insights.