Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies

In 1981, Toronto activist Mel Starkman wrote: "An important new movement is sweeping through the western world.... The 'mad, ' the oppressed, the ex-inmates of society's asylums are coming together and speaking for themselves."

Mad Matters is the first Canadian book to bring together the writings of this vital movement, which has grown explosively in the years since. With contributions from scholars in numerous disciplines, as well as activists and psychiatric survivors, it presents diverse critical voices that convey the lived experiences of the psychiatrized and challenges dominant understandings of "mental illness." The connections between mad activism and other liberation struggles are stressed throughout, making the book a major contribution to the literature on human rights and anti-oppression.

Brenda A. LeFrançois is Associate Professor of Social Work at Memorial University of Newfoundland.Robert Menzies is Professor of Sociology at Simon Fraser University.Geoffrey Reaume is Associate Professor of Critical Disability Studies at York University.