What Have Madness and Psychiatric System Survivors Got to Do with Disability and Disability Studies?

This article focuses on the relationship between psychiatric system survivors with disability. It is written from the perspective of a psychiatric system survivor as a basis for further discussion and action about the relationships with each other. Discussion about the nature of the relationship between disability, madness, distress and psychiatric system survivors does not seem to have progressed much since its exploration. Then, media and political perceptions of and responses to disabled people and survivors seem to be diverging in destructive and alarming ways. The situation for psychiatric system survivors, however, has unambiguously worsened. Care in the community is perceived politically as a failure and government has signaled its end. "Mental health" debate has been dominated by a small number of high profile homicides linked with mental health service users. There does not seem to be any clear agreement in disability discourse whether or not madness, distress and psychiatric system survivors are part of the discussion.