Psychiatric Post-Anarchism: A New Direction for Insurrection in the Mental Health System

Abstract

In response to the disappointments of the anarcho/critical/antipsychiatry movements, we propose the development of a new understanding of political engagement in the context of psychiatric power, governance, resistance, and abolition. Psychiatric postanarchism, we argue, is a praxical approach meant to shift the focus for social change in mental health from macro projects concerning institutions, stakeholders, and governing agents to the micro-political realms. Following Saul Newman (2011, 2016), we imagine the ways in which a focus on praxis and the ‘here and now’ shapes our conceptions of radical politics and emancipatory endeavours. Rather than succumb to what we see as failures in classical anarchist thought and some critical/anti-psychiatry movements that position people as sovereign actors against the state, we argue that contemporary Mad Movements must be willing to constantly challenge their own ontological presuppositions when critiquing the social forces that render some forms of understanding as mad. Our ambition is that this praxis will help Mad Movement activists and scholars see the potential in destabilizing the everyday power relations between psychiatric agents and survivors, without institutional destruction as the necessary and impending goal.