MHCA table SJCC

To: s-acc@yahoogroups.com

From: Andrew Phelps <no-action@cwnet.com>

Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:39:41 -0800

Subject: [s-acc] Madness Studies

I'd like to present my "life project" current involvement with the development of an academic "Madness Studies" curriculum. Please note that the S-ACC is supportive of creative projects in "social accountability," albeit its present political focus is (more narrowly) on "grassroots accountability" in service of transcending "identity politics" and inspiring a "second wave" for the client/survivor movement. This particular project is intended to have such a flavor, but it is not posed to replace/be the ongoing focus of the list. Be that as it may, for more than a year now I've been negotiating with the academic leadership at San Jose City College (SJCC) regarding the possible construction of an academic program in Madness Studies.

I have overcome certain significant hurdles but the task is "still in process." Naturally, I find myself in a thicket of cares and challenges trying to grasp quite what that means: As a daily practice, I do a table in the student center for the Mental Health Client Association (MHCA) - a student group for which I'm currently the Secretary. For me, the issues of my loss of career in social psychology as a spin-off of the Stanford Prison Experiment and my critique of the dysfunctional "attitude management" approach to madness engaged in its resolution are of pivotal interest. I need to develop psychological relationships and the personal habits appropriate to "madness advocacy" at a new social level.

I became a social activist because of social justice concerns (e.g. civil rights, feminism) and in the face of confusion regarding mis-diagnosis and national security based social management of my being. I came to feel that I was stereotyped as a "behavior object" and that the society needed to learn to "behave better" regarding madness issues. My initial political experience was 1969 joining the U.C. Berkeley teaching assistants' union and then five minutes later [!] voting to go on strike in support of the U.C. Berkeley Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) student strike. Now earlier this month, a founder of the TWLF, who initiated "Asian-American Studies" at U.C. Berkeley, named Jean Quan, has been elected the new mayor of Oakland, CA [It's worth noting she used a grassroots approach and that her opponent (the 'favorite') Don Perata was a notorious backer of NAMI/forced treatment].

What would a "Madness Studies" program at SJCC (or other academic institutions) mean for "helping build the tradition of social accountability" among client/survivors? It would IMHO help us develop social legitimacy and overcome stigma/discrimination in our role as social activists - not unlike what the advocacy of Jean Quan and others did for the Chinese-American people whose families were brought to this country as day laborers. For us, teaching the "clinical gaze critique" and promoting community psychology concerns such as those engaged by the (Finnish) Open Dialogue project can change minds and can also change practices. I believe we can engage the psychologist/clinician system in a way that will help them to promote an ethical upgrade in their helping practices and a new validation as beings engaging in "madness support work" in a creative manner.

Anyway, Happy (U.S.) Holiday