What This Is

Hi all, we are the Mad Movement Group, this is our presentation on power analysis within the mental health realm. Everyone will have access to this blog in order to review the information we have gathered. Feel free to post your own comments and opinions under a section you desire. The goal of this blog is to get your thoughts rolling around on power analysis in madness. Enjoy!

Media and Mad Pride

Media
Introduction Video:
Article on David Reville (of Ryerson University Disability Studies): Mad professor? Sure, and he’s full of `mad pride’
·   What it is to be “Mad”
o   What the dominant culture deems as “abnormal”
o   Can mean different things to different people and groups
o   Media has power over people’s opinions on very many subjects, including the “Mad” population.
One example is Brittney Spears....
Everyone around the world was upset that she shaved her hair and thought she was “crazy”, then when they found out it was supposedly for cancer, opinions changed…
o   Make it seem like it is a bad thing to have a mental disorder
o   Make people feel socially excluded


In Abnormal Psychology, by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, describes that disorders "can actually benefit certain people, especially highly intelligent or talented people" (p. 298). She also describes that:
  •      "The symptoms of mania: increased self-esteem, a rush of ideas, the courage to pursue these ideas, high energy, little need for sleep, hypervigilence, and decisiveness" help people in some areas (p. 298)
  •      "Melancholy of depression is often seen as inspirational for artists." (p. 298)
  •      "Some of the most influential people in history have suffered, and perhaps to some extent benefited, from a mood disorder." (p. 298) 
Mad Pride
·         A parade where psychiatric survivors walk the streets with a hospital bed to bring hope and resistance for survivors of the mental health ward. 
·         Took place on Queen Street this year in Toronto on July 17th 2010.
·         Mad Pride week is July 12 - 18th.


·         InsideToronto Article: Marching madly brings some hope to mental health survivors

Rendezvous with Madness

A 10 day film festival in Toronto with films exploring myths and facts around mental illness.
 
Bringing it back to Media…
Joe Pantoliano, of the Sopranos, says that he embraces who he is, and took his depression and made it into a career.
He even created a non-profit organization called, No Kidding, Me Too!, to encourage people to admit to their disease. He “[enlisted] a crew of members: including Robin Williams, Samuel L. Jackson, and Robert Downey, Jr.”
People discuss that their “madness” is a gift and that they need it to thrive.
More info here in this great article: 'Mad Pride' Activists Say They're Unique, Not Sick 

We must embrace differences and resist the temptation to agree with what is “mainstream” to create diversity and empowerment within ourselves, Mad or not.
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Here is the trailer for the movie Shutter Island, which is a great media representation of old insane asylums, and how the media portrays people as "mad".


By Elisabeth MacGillivray
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Here is a clip from an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. This is a very common way that Madness is seen in the media today. Usually, complaints of how Mad people "get off" on charges because of their illness is more often seen, but in this case, the Assistant District Attorney is supporting the idea of helping and trying to "treat" the defendant of this case. This could also be because of her own bias towards the issue, which usually does not happen in real life criminal cases.


This clip is from a well known cartoon, The Simpsons. Anyone who as watched this show knows about the "Crazy Cat Lady". This would be an example of a negative image of the Mad community, making anyone who has a number of cats look "crazy"

The media is a powerful way of shaping the way we think about certain connumities, including the Mad community. Either making us believe that people who have mental illnesses get off for commiting horrible crimes, or just throw cats at people while speaking in jibberish, the media turns the Mad community into a marginalized group that society avoids at all cost.

-Hayley






A slightly older movie, but nonetheless a movie that very well depicts the struggle for power and how power is played out in an asylum by doctors versus patients.
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