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Madness Contested: Power and Practice
A critical review of how the mentally ill are treated both by the Mental Health Services and society, followed by alternatives to the current treatment of mental health based on views from nurses, service users, psychiatrists, psychologists, practitioners, and academics. This should be read by all those with an interest in mental health care.
- GenresPsychology
392 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 2013
22 people want to read
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July 15, 2015
There is so much in this book that is unassailable. So much that is remarkably written, I could keep rereading 'Madness Contested' and intend to. A huge resource for psychiatric survivors, decent human-beings, people who wish to work in crisis & care and what is currently called the ‘mental health system’ in order to force society to recognise:
P245, ‘Fear and discrimination go hand in hand. Society fears what it does not want to understand. We live in a world where science is used to justify the control of those who are in extreme states of confusion. We try to control what we are too afraid of or unfamiliar with to understand. Confusion only happens when people experience violence and/ or loss and isolation. But we are encouraged to ignore these social roots if we take a technological approach to their difficulties. Medical language confirms people’s ‘otherness’ and cements the divide between ‘them and us’. We can only break this down by promoting stories of those who have been written off… We need to find ways to speak up about this and show how confusion is a reasonable response to difficult circumstances… To create a healing community we need to be prepared to really learn from what does not work and do the opposite: assume we are all worthy of respect as equals. This means we should be looking for opportunities in all parts of our lives to dialogue, negotiate, be transparent, trustworthy and share decision-making. We need to be creative and learn together to explore our vulnerabilities and face our fears rather than push them away.’
P245, ‘Fear and discrimination go hand in hand. Society fears what it does not want to understand. We live in a world where science is used to justify the control of those who are in extreme states of confusion. We try to control what we are too afraid of or unfamiliar with to understand. Confusion only happens when people experience violence and/ or loss and isolation. But we are encouraged to ignore these social roots if we take a technological approach to their difficulties. Medical language confirms people’s ‘otherness’ and cements the divide between ‘them and us’. We can only break this down by promoting stories of those who have been written off… We need to find ways to speak up about this and show how confusion is a reasonable response to difficult circumstances… To create a healing community we need to be prepared to really learn from what does not work and do the opposite: assume we are all worthy of respect as equals. This means we should be looking for opportunities in all parts of our lives to dialogue, negotiate, be transparent, trustworthy and share decision-making. We need to be creative and learn together to explore our vulnerabilities and face our fears rather than push them away.’
Displaying 1 of 1 review