One of our friends in the mad posse is going through a rough patch. We've not heard from him, and worry that he's overwhelmed and unable to respond to our inquiries. The last time I saw him, at one of our meetup groups, he indicated how transformative the Mad Studies course had been for him so far, and the impact it was having on his life.
This reminds me of the distinction made between Folk Wisdom with its “primitive sources” (including so-called “Chinese Medicine” and related fields) and what I’ll call “The Western Academy of Science.” The latter relies on the impersonal scientific method while the former relies on an accumulation of traditional experience, sometimes even personal anecdote (Carlos Castenada), and some culture’s reverence for those the Western model considers “ill,” a very limited construct which dehumanizes so many patients because doctors and allied professionals are taught to treat illnesses not people.
That said Western science is beginning to entertain some of these traditions as evidenced by acupuncture having a place in Western Medicine and the “rediscovery” of hallucinogens as a therapeutic path. RD Laing in “The Politics of Experience,” first published in the 1960’s, was one of the first to take the Voice of Madness seriously and the book has gone through several editions.
If people have not yet supposed I should reveal that my credentials are not simply as an MD who chose psychiatry (long retired) but also as someone who has faced some ferocious challenges to my mental and physical health that I’ve managed to get successfully treated and which have allowed me to adapt successfully enough to make it to 75.
I can say without reservation that there are systems of care which have existed in this country (and may exist in others) which to some degree took the experience of madness seriously enough to make treatment a humane effort, though it may be hard to find them now. San Francisco, where I trained in the 1970’s, had a Community Mental Health system with many layers that spanned numerous dimensions of care from psychiatric emergency outposts throughout the city to inpatient, 3/4 way house, 1/2 way house, and outpatient care. The folksy “Barefoot Doctor of the People” theme (mythology?) infused much of the medical community, especially students, resident trainees and younger MD’s. Sadly the funding dried up and such systems are much harder to find in this country now. During my years of practicing actively the patient’s “voice” was what I was taught to listen for above all, however “mad.”
Thank you Bobby for reading and for commenting too :-) Something I am coming to question through my Mad Studies education (both formal and personal endeavours) is whether the medical paradigm is an appropriate framing for mental phenomena and experiences such as madness. As you point out, is 'illness' really what is happening or is that what we have been taught to perceive? And is 'treatment' really what is needed to respond to someone's extreme or anomolous state of mind? In my own case, psychosis encompassed so many different aspects of experience: a feminist awakening, a spiritual emergence, a single-parent mid-life crisis, bereavement, the physical ravagings of menopause, a lack of sleep, a hectic workload and accompanying stress, terror about the climate crisis, distress about political and societal and economic corruption and ecological destruction... those are off the top of my head but only scratch the surface of the myriad variables that led me to crack open into another state of awareness. Pinning it down to simply a chemical change in the brain - a mere physical expression of so-called 'health' - belies the beautiful complexity and the absolute value of that experience for its own sake.
As a doctor in the field of psychiatry, and as someone with your own lived experience, what do you think about the mad movement that is growing to question the medical model and which spotlights the limitations of that profession? It is good that you listened for the mad voice – could you elaborate on how you engaged with it when you heard it? I suppose what I hope for is that the mad voice is no longer coerced or compelled to be 'healed' into a so-called sane voice. As Krishnamurti pointed out, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
It's late and I'm heading to bed, but I hope to continue this dialogue with you, and I appreciate your interest in the post. Best wishes :-)
This reminds me of the distinction made between Folk Wisdom with its “primitive sources” (including so-called “Chinese Medicine” and related fields) and what I’ll call “The Western Academy of Science.” The latter relies on the impersonal scientific method while the former relies on an accumulation of traditional experience, sometimes even personal anecdote (Carlos Castenada), and some culture’s reverence for those the Western model considers “ill,” a very limited construct which dehumanizes so many patients because doctors and allied professionals are taught to treat illnesses not people.
That said Western science is beginning to entertain some of these traditions as evidenced by acupuncture having a place in Western Medicine and the “rediscovery” of hallucinogens as a therapeutic path. RD Laing in “The Politics of Experience,” first published in the 1960’s, was one of the first to take the Voice of Madness seriously and the book has gone through several editions.
If people have not yet supposed I should reveal that my credentials are not simply as an MD who chose psychiatry (long retired) but also as someone who has faced some ferocious challenges to my mental and physical health that I’ve managed to get successfully treated and which have allowed me to adapt successfully enough to make it to 75.
I can say without reservation that there are systems of care which have existed in this country (and may exist in others) which to some degree took the experience of madness seriously enough to make treatment a humane effort, though it may be hard to find them now. San Francisco, where I trained in the 1970’s, had a Community Mental Health system with many layers that spanned numerous dimensions of care from psychiatric emergency outposts throughout the city to inpatient, 3/4 way house, 1/2 way house, and outpatient care. The folksy “Barefoot Doctor of the People” theme (mythology?) infused much of the medical community, especially students, resident trainees and younger MD’s. Sadly the funding dried up and such systems are much harder to find in this country now. During my years of practicing actively the patient’s “voice” was what I was taught to listen for above all, however “mad.”
Thank you Bobby for reading and for commenting too :-) Something I am coming to question through my Mad Studies education (both formal and personal endeavours) is whether the medical paradigm is an appropriate framing for mental phenomena and experiences such as madness. As you point out, is 'illness' really what is happening or is that what we have been taught to perceive? And is 'treatment' really what is needed to respond to someone's extreme or anomolous state of mind? In my own case, psychosis encompassed so many different aspects of experience: a feminist awakening, a spiritual emergence, a single-parent mid-life crisis, bereavement, the physical ravagings of menopause, a lack of sleep, a hectic workload and accompanying stress, terror about the climate crisis, distress about political and societal and economic corruption and ecological destruction... those are off the top of my head but only scratch the surface of the myriad variables that led me to crack open into another state of awareness. Pinning it down to simply a chemical change in the brain - a mere physical expression of so-called 'health' - belies the beautiful complexity and the absolute value of that experience for its own sake.
As a doctor in the field of psychiatry, and as someone with your own lived experience, what do you think about the mad movement that is growing to question the medical model and which spotlights the limitations of that profession? It is good that you listened for the mad voice – could you elaborate on how you engaged with it when you heard it? I suppose what I hope for is that the mad voice is no longer coerced or compelled to be 'healed' into a so-called sane voice. As Krishnamurti pointed out, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
It's late and I'm heading to bed, but I hope to continue this dialogue with you, and I appreciate your interest in the post. Best wishes :-)