STANDING UP TO THE MADNESS

In this remarkable book, Amy and David Goodman write about acts of bravery
and advocacy for social justice — examples, they say, of “standing up to the madness.“

Do these people have ‘diagnoses’? What medications do they take for their ‘illnesses’? What did their ‘case managers’ say about their unusual behavior? Was it seen as an indication they needed ‘stabilization’?

The “client/survivor” people involved with the ‘mental health’ system live differently than the book’s heroes of this book. Are they just deficient people? Or do they face discriminatory attitudes in our society, due to social injustice?

Creative Maladjustment  Martin Luther King, Jr. told the American Psychological Association in 1967 that “the role of the behavior scientist in the civil rights movement” must be to promote ‘creative maladjustment’

Freedom and Dignity  The civil rights movement was for freedom and dignity, he said. Those are the values to be cherished in behavioral science, not conformity or normalcy

From Confrontation to Dialogue  King’s immediate legacy was not changing behavioral science promoting thereby the “creative maladjustment” approach cherishing ‘freedom’ and ‘dignity’. Rather he was assassinated, and the behavior evolved immediately in the frame of “burn, baby, burn!” For ‘creativity’, we need to focus on dialogue

Human Rights Extended  A new human rights movement is growing. Today it lobbies Congress and it organizes the U.N. Disabilities Treaty. It provides “peer support” and “recovery” for millions. The activists want to be considered part of the movement for social change, not as “deficient persons needing ‘treatment’.” They have the experience, they’ve worked the turf, and they KNOW about standing up to the madness

What Amy could do:

  • hear the voices of the “client/survivor” people and see how our experience in standing up to the madness enriches and (potentially) strengthens the social change movement
  • interview the leaders of the National Coalition of Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Organizations  [www.ncmhcso.org]  (which lobbies Congress)  the World Network of Users and Survivors in Psychiatry  [www.wnusp.net]  (which played an important role in the U.N. Disability Treaty)  and other activist projects
  • interview psychologists such as Paula Caplan (Gender studies, Harvard) on “Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis”
  • consider the trauma of the Iraq war for the soldiers and how the returning veterans will be sorely in need of ‘creative maladjustment’

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