At the Heart of a Mad Movement

This book showcases and celebrates the writings of Peter Campbell, an activist, writer, educator, and a veteran survivor of the mental health system, conveying the variety and vitality of Campbell's accomplishments across the years from 1967 to 2022.

Diagnosed with severe psychosis and with a history of hospitalizations reaching back to 1967, Peter Campbell was an indefatigable critic of orthodox psychiatry and of many aspects of the mental health system. He was a founder and veteran of the groundbreaking psychiatric survivors’ movement in 1980s and 1990s Britain. The diverse essays within this book cover topics such as seclusion, spiritual crisis, lived experience of psychosis, ECT and psychiatric drugs, and the survivor movement, together with a number of in-depth interviews, as well as other creative contributions such as dramatic scripts and satirical sketches. Brought together, these diverse creations are an eloquent testimony to the humanity, unflagging commitment and staying power of a hugely significant writer, innovator, commentator and critic.

Written in Campbell's accessible and witty style, this will be an invaluable resource for practitioners in psychiatry and all disciplines, people with lived experience of psychosis and their relatives and carers, activists, and all concerned with distress and mental wellbeing.

Peter Barham is a psychologist and historian of mental health. He has been working, writing, and engaging critically in the mental health field for more than fifty years.

Peter Beresford OBE is Visiting Professor at the University of East Anglia and Co-Chair of Shaping Our Lives, the national disabled people’s and service users’ organization and network.

Ker Wallwork is the project archivist for the Peter Campbell Legacy Project, hosted by the Bishopsgate Institute, where Peter Campbell’s extensive archives, compiled over more than four decades, have been donated.