Mad Matters A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies

Over the decade since the first edition of Mad Matters was published, Mad Studies has exploded into a new field of study across Canada and around the world. This thoroughly updated and expanded second edition continues the legacy of the groundbreaking first edition by presenting more critical voices that convey the lived experiences of psychiatrized people and which challenges dominant understandings of "mental illness." Featuring contributions from scholars, mad activists, and psychiatric survivors, this groundbreaking collection gives voice to critical perspectives on psychiatry and mental health.

This second edition features substantial updates, including revised chapters with expanded analysis of race and racism, as well as fifteen new chapters exploring topics such as anti-Blackness and Indigeneity madness. A new foreword situates the work within the evolving field of mad studies. Suited for courses in Mad Studies or any critical mental health course in Canada, this interdisciplinary resource is particularly relevant to programs in Critical Race Studies, Social Work, Health Studies, Nursing, Sociology, Postcolonial Studies, Psychology, History, Gender and Women's Studies, Political Science, Cultural and Literary Studies, Social and Political Thought, and Critical Disability Studies.

With its interdisciplinary reach and commitment to social justice, Mad Matters remains a foundational text for students, scholars, and activists engaged in critical mental health studies. This highly anticipated new edition will encourage readers to reconsider the status quo and embrace the importance of Mad studies in today's world.

Idil Abdillahi is an Associate Professor in the School of Disability Studies, cross-appointed to the School of Social Work at Toronto Metropolitan University. Broadly, her work focuses on Black life, livability, carcerality, and refusal. She is the author or co-author of several texts, including Black Women Under State: Surveillance, Poverty, & the Violence of Social Assistance (2022) and BlackLife: Post BLM and The Struggle for Freedom (2019).

Bren A. LeFrançois is a University Research Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. Their research focuses on Mad Studies, the psychiatrization of children, and critical children's rights as well as the intersections of sanism, queerness, social activism, anarchist practices, and critical methodologies. Bren has taught courses in social work theory, critical mental health, child and youth practice, ethics, community development, and qualitative research.

Geoffrey Reaume is Associate Professor in the Critical Disability Studies graduate program at York University where he teaches Mad Peoples' History and Disability History. He is a co-founder of the Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto and created the first university credit course on Mad People's History, which he has been teaching since 2000. He has published work on this topic for over thirty years.

Robert Menzies is Professor Emeritus, Sociology, at Simon Fraser University and was the initiator of the first edition of Mad Matters (2013).