Sanism and the Mad Studies Project Lancaster Disability

Sanism and the Mad Studies Project Lancaster Disability Conference 10 September 2014 Brenda A. Le. François, Ph. D

Mad Studies Critical Psychiatry Critical Disability Studies Anti. Psychiatry Mad Community Radical Therapists Psychiatric Survivors Critical Disability Studies Mad Studies

Sanism Birnbaum coined in 1960 s Judi Chamberlin – mentalism - 1978 Perlin 1990 s to present Diagnosis and labels of ‘mental illness’ themselves constitute sanism Micro aggressions Systemic sanism Sanism or stigma?

Sanism in Health and Social Care Psychiatrisation (diagnosis, treatment, biomedicalism) Authoritarian vs participatory practice Medical model and pharmaceutical focus Forced treatment Intersections: class sexuality racialization gender age

Sanism in Our Communities Critical Psychiatry Critical Disability Studies Anti. Psychiatry Mad Community Radical Therapists Psychiatric Survivors Centering professionals academics or other allies Tokenism Limiting membership Denying common purposes or goals Distancing from other marginalized groups Empire building

Anti-Sanist Praxis Alternatives to biomedicalism Participatory practice Respect for experiences Deconstructing ‘normalcy’ Widening and socially reconstructing what constitutes human behaviour, thoughts and feelings Attention to social aspects of distress, including child abuse and other forms of violence and trauma Allowing people to have their own understandings of their experiences and to determine their life course

Questions?