Mad World: An Exhibition on Sane People in Insane Situations

From individuals interred for their homosexuality, to women who wanted divorces; from teenagers who wanted to write for a living, to malnutrition – discover the history and explore if you can logically spot madness.

Art Exhibition at St Margaret’s House From 27th May to 21st June

Edinburgh: 29th May: Mad World Art Exhibition Opening

Come along and to an art exhibition which is to challenge the world to discover the insane. The concept of ‘madness’ has been a part of human society for arguably millennia, many places – times – and peoples have shaped how we perceive ‘mental health’. Now, in the UK and western world, the dominant perspective is one which medicalizes behaviour, and the medical world has become the overriding voice which gets to speak about what meanings are attributed to these phenomena, and what they represent. Read more…

Asylum: A Journey Through Madness and Back by Dina Poursanidou

How I became involved with the Asylum magazine and what such involvement has meant for me:  a journey through madness and back by Dina Poursanidou

My first encounter with the Asylum magazine occurred in the spring of 2010 – when the magazine was relaunched after a 3-year break. I was introduced to Asylum by Helen (Spandler), a friend and colleague from the University of Central Lancashire and member of the Asylum editorial collective, and I have been reading it religiously ever since. In the autumn of 2011 Helen asked me whether I would be interested in being involved in the Asylum editorial collective, stressing that ‘the collective is open to anyone who wants to help produce and develop the magazine, working in a spirit of equality’. I was pleased to be asked and I have been a member of the collective for about a year. Read more…

Oor Mad History by Kirsten Maclean

Kirsten made short talk at the 12th of June event.  She is a social historian and has been working on Oor Mad History a community history project about the history of activism by mental health service users in Lothian.  Service user led and supported by NHS Lothian, we look at ways of using community history and the arts to strengthen the service user voice and movement today and in the future.
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