It's time to reclaim our mental health!
"A radical antidote to the constraints of our current conceptualisation of mental health." Dazed
Mental health is a political issue, but we often discuss it as a personal one. How is the current mental health crisis connected to capitalism, racism and other social issues? In a different world, how might we transform the ways that we think about mental health, diagnosis and treatment?
These are some of the big questions Micha Frazer-Carroll asks as she reveals mental health to be an urgent political concern that needs deeper understanding beyond today's 'awareness-raising' campaigns.
Exploring the history of asylums and psychiatry; the relationship between disability justice, queer liberation and mental health; art and creativity; prisons and abolition; and alternative models of care; Mad World is a radical and hopeful antidote to pathologisation, gatekeeping and the policing of imagination.
About the Author
Micha Frazer-Carroll is a columnist at the Independent. She has previously edited for gal-dem, the Guardian and Blueprint, a mental health magazine that she founded. Micha has also written for Vogue, HuffPost, Huck and Dazed. She was nominated for the Comment Awards’ Fresh New Voice of the Year Award, and the Observer/Anthony Burgess Award for Arts Criticism. She is invested in using journalism to challenge systems of power.
What People Are Saying
“An inquisitive and nuanced look at a topic that we talk so much about and yet still don’t really have much of a holistic grasp on.” gal dem
“A radical antidote to the constraints of our current conceptualisation of mental health.” Dazed
“Really brilliant...this is by far the best introduction to mad politics I've ever read.” Robert Chapman, Senior Lecturer in Education at Sheffield Hallam University
“In these urgent times, activists are often seeking guidance on radical approaches to mental health. Mad World offers a welcome and refreshing guide to a progressive politics of mental health – an indispensable resource for activists today.” Hel Spandler, Editor, Asylum: the radical mental health magazine
“Wow! An honest, urgent and lovingly researched invitation to rethink our assumptions about madness. Mad World is an invaluable toolkit, not just for dismantling oppressive health structures, but for building the systems of care we desperately need. This book is a gift and that gift is hope.” Aisha Mirza, founder of Misery mental health collective
“An urgent introduction to a new radical politics of mental health which embraces the messy, unruly nature of our collective vulnerability and interdependence. Frazer-Carroll exposes the underlying truth that capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with our wellbeing. Mad World teaches us how to transform the ways we understand madness, illness, and disability to build a better world.” Beatrice Adler-Bolton, co-author of Health Communism
“Frazer-Carroll takes on the politics of mental health with accessibility, compassion and curiosity. She calls for critical, progressive thinking and radical change to systems that have been tools of oppression for far too long.” Ms. Magazine
“Frazer-Carroll takes aim at the individualisation of mental health, arguing for radical, political change.” Huck
“This incredibly thought-provoking debut shows the need for new, deeper, and more radical mental health conversations. This book doesn’t just think outside the box, it rips the box wide open.” Rhys Thomas, Woo
“An accessible and in-depth tool for thinking radically and politically about mental health in the 21st century.” Adele Walton, journalist and Dazed book columnist
“An incredibly well-written and clear-thinking introduction to the issues at stake in the mad movement. It offers a contemporary and forward-thinking analysis of how mental well-being is both damaged and politicised in capitalist society.” National Survivor User Network