MindFreedom International
Encyclopedia
Coalition
A coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant...
of over one hundred grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
groups and thousands of individual members from fourteen nations. It was founded in 1990 to advocate against forced medication
Involuntary treatment
Involuntary treatment refers to medical treatment undertaken without a person's consent. In almost all circumstances, involuntary treatment refers to psychiatric treatment administered despite an individual's objections...
, medical restraints, and involuntary electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...
. Its stated mission is to protect the right
Right
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...
s of people who have been labeled with psychiatric disorders. A majority of MindFreedom members identify themselves as survivors of human rights violations in the mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
system; membership, however, is open to anyone who supports human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, including mental health professional
Mental health professional
A mental health professional is a health care practitioner who offers services for the purpose of improving an individual's mental health or to treat mental illness. This broad category includes psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurses, mental health...
s, advocate
Advocate
An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...
s, activists and family members. MindFreedom has been recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council
United Nations Economic and Social Council
The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations constitutes one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and it is responsible for the coordination of the economic, social and related work of 14 UN specialized agencies, its functional commissions and five regional commissions...
as a human rights NGO with Consultative Roster Status
Consultative Status
Consultative Status is a phrase whose use can be traced to the founding of the United Nations and is used within the UN community to refer to "Non-governmental organizations in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council." Also some international organizations could...
.
Origins and purpose
MindFreedom International is rooted in the psychiatric survivors movementPsychiatric survivors movement
The psychiatric survivors movement is a diverse association of individuals who are either currently clients of mental health services , or who consider themselves survivors of interventions by psychiatry, or who identify themselves as ex-patients of mental health services...
, or more widely the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement, which arose out of the civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
ferment of the late 1960s and early 1970s and the personal histories of psychiatric abuse experienced by some ex-patients rather than the intradisciplinary discourse of antipsychiatry. The precursors of MFI include ex-patient groups of the 1970s such as the Portland based Insane Liberation Front and the Mental Patients' Liberation Front in New York. The key text in the intellectual development of the survivor movement was Judi Chamberlin's
Judi Chamberlin
Judi Chamberlin was an American activist, leader, organizer, public speaker and educator in the psychiatric survivors movement. Her political activism followed her involuntary confinement in a psychiatric facility in the 1960s...
1978 text, On Our Own: Patient Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System. Chamberlin was an ex-patient and co-founder of the Mental Patients' Liberation Front. Coalescing around the ex-patient newsletter Dendron, in late 1988 leaders from several of the main national and grassroots psychiatric survivor groups felt that an independent, human rights coalition focused on problems in the mental health system was needed. That year the Support Coalition International (SCI) was formed. In 2005 the SCI changed its name to MFI with David W. Oaks as its director. SCI's first public action was to stage a counter-conference and protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, in May, 1990, at the same time as (and directly outside of) the American Psychiatric Association's
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
annual meeting.
Many of the members of MFI, who feel that their human rights were violated by the mental health system, refer to themselves as 'psychiatric survivors'. MFI is a contemporary and active coalition of grassroots groups which are carrying forward the historical tradition of survivor opposition to coercive psychiatry. It does not define itself as an antipsychiatry organization and its members point to the role which 'compassionate' psychiatrists have played in MFI. Activists within the coalition have been drawn from both left and right wing of politics.
MFI functions as a forum for its thousands of members to express their views and experiences, to form support networks and to organize activist campaigns in support of human rights in psychiatry. The coalition regards the psychiatric practices of 'unscientific labeling, forced drugging, solitary confinement, restraints, involuntary commitment, electroshock' as human rights violations.
Range of campaigns
- In 2003 eight MFI members, led by David W. Oaks, went on hunger strike to publicize a series of "challenges" they had set to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the US Surgeon GeneralSurgeon General of the United StatesThe Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...
and the National Alliance on Mental IllnessNational Alliance on Mental IllnessThe National Alliance on Mental Illness was founded in 1979 as the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. NAMI is a nation-wide American advocacy group, representing families and people affected by mental illness as a non-profit grass roots organization and has affiliates in every American state...
(NAMI). Prominent among their challenges was that unambiguous proof that mental illness is brain disorder should be produced. By sustaining the hunger-strike for more than one month MFI forced the APA and NAMI to enter into a debate with them on this and other issues.
- Psychiatric Industry Watch: Criticizes what it sees as pharmaceutical industry financial and political influences upon the direction of 'mental health.' For example, the Watch focuses on the pharmaceutical industry's indirect support and direct lobbying for laws that create civil "outpatient commitmentOutpatient commitmentOutpatient commitment refers to mental health law that allows the compulsory, community-based treatment of individuals with mental illness.In the United States the term "assisted outpatient treatment" or "AOT" is often used and refers to a process whereby a judge orders a qualifying person with...
" that enable authorities to administer psychiatric medication involuntarily in the community, e.g., in a patient's home without involuntary hospitalization. MFI's activities have placed it in direct opposition to the pharmaceutical industry, resulting in legal action against MFI. - The Right to Remember: Seeks to end involuntary electroconvulsive therapy by publicizing instances of forced electroconvulsive treatment and lobbyingLobbyingLobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
decision-makers to stop such practices. - Oral Histories: Compiles and publicizes psychiatric survivor stories detailing the experiences of those who have been through the mental health system. The stories promulgated aim to document abuse by the mental health system and the success stories of individuals who attained a state of stable remission and were able to regain self-direction, usually by disengaging from traditional mental health treatment,
- Mad PrideMad PrideMad Pride is a mass movement of mental health services users and their allies. The first known event specifically organized as a Pride event by people who identify as psychiatric survivors/consumer/ex-patients was in Toronto, Canada when it was called "Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day", held on...
: Advocates self-determinationSelf-determinationSelf-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
among those deemed 'mad'. The coalition has proclaimed July as "Mad Pride Month", and supports events around the world celebrating some of the myriad aspects of 'madness,' i.e., those aspects which are seen as positive. - International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment (IAACM): Promotes the right to be nonviolently maladjusted. IAACM is currently chaired by Patch AdamsPatch AdamsHunter Doherty "Patch" Adams, M.D. is an American physician, social activist, citizen diplomat and author. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971...
, MD.
MindFreedom Shield Program
MindFreedom describes their Shield Program as "an all for one and one for all" network of members. When a registered member is receiving (or is being considered for) involuntary psychiatric treatment, an alert is sent to the MindFreedom Solidarity Network on that person's behalf. Members of the network are then expected to participate in organized, constructive, nonviolent actionsNonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
---e.g., political action, publicity and media alerts, passive resistance, etc.---to stop or prevent the forced treatment.
See also
- Anti-psychiatryAnti-psychiatryAnti-psychiatry is a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s, and questioned the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry, such as its claim that it achieves universal, scientific objectivity. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing,...
- Biopsychiatry controversyBiopsychiatry controversyThe biopsychiatry controversy is a dispute over which viewpoint should predominate and form the scientific basis of psychiatric theory and practice. The debate is a criticism of a claimed strict biological view of psychiatric thinking. Its critics including disparate groups such as the...
- Clifford Whittingham BeersClifford Whittingham BeersClifford Whittingham Beers was the founder of the American mental hygiene movement.Beers was born in New Haven, Connecticut to Ida and Robert Beers on March 30, 1876. He was one of five children, all of whom would suffer from psychological distress and would die in mental institutions, including...
- Electroconvulsive therapyElectroconvulsive therapyElectroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...
- Elizabeth PackardElizabeth PackardElizabeth Parsons Ware Packard was an advocate for the rights of women and people accused of insanity.-Life:...
- Icarus ProjectIcarus Project.The Icarus Project http://theicarusproject.net is a mental health movement characterized by the view that many phenomena commonly labeled as mental illness should actually be regarded as "dangerous gifts"...
- Involuntary commitmentInvoluntary commitmentInvoluntary commitment or civil commitment is a legal process through which an individual with symptoms of severe mental illness is court-ordered into treatment in a hospital or in the community ....
- Involuntary treatmentInvoluntary treatmentInvoluntary treatment refers to medical treatment undertaken without a person's consent. In almost all circumstances, involuntary treatment refers to psychiatric treatment administered despite an individual's objections...
- John HuntJohn Hunt (psychiatric patient)John Hunt , an Irish citizen, is a writer, artist and an involuntarily detained psychiatric patient. The conditions of Hunt's detention have been the subject of a sustained campaign by his former partner and mother of his child Gráinne Humphrys...
- Judi ChamberlinJudi ChamberlinJudi Chamberlin was an American activist, leader, organizer, public speaker and educator in the psychiatric survivors movement. Her political activism followed her involuntary confinement in a psychiatric facility in the 1960s...
- Kate MillettKate MillettKate Millett is an American lesbian feminist writer and activist. A seminal influence on second-wave feminism, Millet is best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics.-Career:...
- Leonard Roy FrankLeonard Roy FrankLeonard Roy Frank is an American human rights activist, electroconvulsive therapy survivor and writer from New York. Since 1959 he has lived in San Francisco, where he managed an art gallery before he began collecting great quotations.Leonard Roy Frank (born July 15, 1932) is an American human...
- Linda AndreLinda AndreLinda Andre is an American psychiatric survivor activist and writer, living in New York City, who is the director of the Committee for Truth in Psychiatry , an organization founded by Marilyn Rice in 1984 to encourage the U.S...
- List of psychiatric survivor related topics
- Lyn DuffLyn DuffLyn Duff is an American journalist with the Pacific News Service and KPFA radio's "Flashpoints", an evening drive-time public affairs show heard daily on Pacifica Radio.- Early years :...
- Mad PrideMad PrideMad Pride is a mass movement of mental health services users and their allies. The first known event specifically organized as a Pride event by people who identify as psychiatric survivors/consumer/ex-patients was in Toronto, Canada when it was called "Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day", held on...
- Mentalism (discrimination)Mentalism (discrimination)Mentalism is a form of discrimination and oppression against people based on categorization of mental type , mental action , supposed intelligence, or neurology Mentalism (also known as sanism) is a form of discrimination and oppression against people based on categorization of mental type (e.g....
- National Empowerment CenterNational Empowerment CenterThe National Empowerment Center is an advocacy and peer-support organization in the United States that promotes an empowerment-based recovery model of mental disorder. It is run by consumers/survivors/ex-patients in recovery....
- Psychiatric survivors movementPsychiatric survivors movementThe psychiatric survivors movement is a diverse association of individuals who are either currently clients of mental health services , or who consider themselves survivors of interventions by psychiatry, or who identify themselves as ex-patients of mental health services...
- Recovery modelRecovery modelThe Recovery Model as it applies to mental health is an approach to mental disorder or substance dependence that emphasizes and supports each individual's potential for recovery...
- Self-help groups for mental healthSelf-help groups for mental healthSelf-help groups for mental health are voluntary associations of people who share a common desire to overcome mental illness or otherwise increase their level of cognitive or emotional wellbeing. There are several international mental health self-help organizations including Emotions Anonymous, the...
- Services for mental disordersServices for mental disordersServices for mental disorders offer treatments, support or advocacy to people judged to have mental disorders .-Medical services:...
- Ted ChabasinskiTed ChabasinskiTed Chabasinski is an American psychiatric survivor, human rights activist and attorney who lives in Berkeley, California. At the age of six he was taken from his foster family's home and committed to a New York psychiatric facility...
- Peter LehmannPeter Lehmann (author)Peter Lehmann is an author, social scientist, publisher, provider of a mail-order book-service and an independent freelance activist in humanistic anti-psychiatry, living in Berlin, Germany....
- World Network of Users and Survivors of PsychiatryWorld Network of Users and Survivors of PsychiatryThe World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry is an international organisation representing, and led by "survivors of psychiatry". As of 2003, over 70 national organizations were members of WNUSP, based in 30 countries...
External links and References
- MindFreedom.org - MindFreedom International homepage
- Utne.com - "Freeing Your Mind", Keith Goetzman, UtneUtneUtne is a village in Ullensvang municipality in Hardanger, Norway. It is home to the Utne Hotel, Norway's oldest hotel in continuous operation, founded in 1722....
(May/June, 2006) - PsychiatryOnline.org - 'Evolution of the Antipsychiatry Movement Into Mental Health Consumerism', Psychiatric Services, Rissmiller and Rissmiller, 57 (6): 863 (2006)
- IndyStar.com - 'Eli LillyEli Lilly and CompanyEli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
to bolster Zyprexa warning', John Russell, Indianapolis Star (October 6, 2007) - RegisterGuard.com - 'Rights group up against Eli Lilly', Susan Palmer, The Register Guard, (January 15, 2007)