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Peter Stastny / Peter Lehmann (Eds.): Alternatives Beyond
Psychiatry
About the Co-authors
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Volkmar Aderhold,
born in 1954, is an M.D. and doctor of psychiatry, psychotherapy
and psychotherapeutic medicine. He has worked since 1982 in
psychiatry, from 1996-2006 as a senior physician in the area
of psychosis at the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
in the University Clinic of Hamburg-Eppendorf. Since 2006,
he has been a member of the Institute for Social Psychiatry
at the University of Greifswald. And free-lancing with advanced
training and implementation of the Open Dialogue within hospitals
and outpatient structures. Publications include Psychotherapie
der Psychosen – Integrative Behandlungsansätze aus
Skandinavien (Psychotherapy of Psychosis: Integrative
Treatment Approaches from Scandinavia), in collaboration
with Yrjö Alanen, et al., 2003; Neue
Antidepressiva, atypische Neuroleptika – Risiken, Placebo-Effekte,
Niedrigdosierung und Alternativen. Mit einem Exkurs zur Wiederkehr
des Elektroschocks (New Antidepressants, Atypical
Neuroleptics: Risks, placebo effects, low doses and alternatives.
With a digression to the return of the electroshock (2017,
in collaboration with Peter Lehmann, Marc Rufer and Josef
Zehentbauer; ebook
2021). |
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Laurie Ahern. Psychiatric
Survivor, living in USA. Associate Director of Disability
Rights International (DRI). Co-founder and co-director of
the National
Empowerment Center, Inc., a federally-funded recovery
and technical assistance center. Former vice president of
the National
Association of Rights, Protection and Advocacy (NARPA).
Recipient of the National Mental Health Association's Clifford
Beers Award and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law's
Advocacy Award. Co-author/investigator of the both MDRI-reports:
Hidden Suffering: Romania's Segregation and Abuse of Infants
and Children with Disabilities (2006) and Behind Closed
Doors: Human Rights Abuses in Psychiatric Facilities, Orphanages
and Rehabilitation Centers of Turkey (2005). |
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Birgitta Alakare.
Psychiatrist, psychotherapist (advance specialist level) and
family therapy trainer, lived in Finland. Worked in Western
Lapland District both in outpatient clinic and Keropudas Hospital
since 1982. Involved in developing practices with people suffering
from psychosis or showing its first signs. Birgitta passed away on February 19, 2021. |
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Karyn Baker has
worked in mental health since 1983 and has had her own family
experience. Since 1996, she has been the Director of the Family
Outreach and Response Program in Toronto, Canada. Karyn has
developed education and support programs for families using
a critical psychiatric perspective. Presently, she has been
given the lead role in Toronto to develop programs for families
with a relative recovering from first time label of psychosis.
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Ulrich Bartmann,
born in 1948 in Westfalen. Qualified psychologist and psychotherapist.
While studying, worked in substance abuse services and as
a teacher in technical colleges and specialized secondary
schools for social pedagogy. From 1976 until 1996, he worked
as a behavioral therapist in psychiatry. 1989 Doctorate work
on the therapeutic effect of slow jogging on the psyche. Since
1996, he has been a professor of Social Work Methods at the
University for Applied Sciences at Würzburg –
Schweinfurt, and faculty coordinator for the track "Social
work with individuals who experience substance-related and
mental health problems." Supervisor for behavioral therapy.
Published works: Joggen und Laufen für die Psyche.
Ein Weg zur seelischen Ausgeglichenheit (Jogging and
Running for the Mind: A Path to Spiritual Balance), 5th
edition 2009, editor of Fortschritte in Lauftherapie (Advances
in Running Therapy), as well as publications about addiction
disorders, clinical social work and quality assurance in social
work. More > |
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Agnes
Beier, born 1961. Art exhibits of paintings and written
texts, public readings of her own poetry, and publications
in anthologies. More > |
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Regina Bellion,
born 1941, cleaning-woman, factory-worker, haute-couture sales-woman,
teacher, waitress etc. Today living in retirement in Wilhelmshaven. |
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Wilma Boevink was
born in 1963. Social scientist. Working in Utrecht at Trimbos-instituut
(the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction)
as a senior researcher. Founder of TREE, a user-led
training and consulting company in the area of recovery, empowerment
and experiential expertise of persons with psychiatric disabilities.
From 2006-09, Chair of Stichting
Weerklank, the Dutch organisation of people who hear voices
and have psychotic experiences; from 2008-13, Professor of
Recovery at Hanze University Groningen. Former active member
of the Dutch user-movement in psychiatry and board member
of the European
Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. Publications
include, Stories
of Recovery: Working Together towards Experiential Knowledge
in Mental Health Care (ed., 2006). Contributor to
Recovery of People with Mental Illness: Philosophical and
Related Perspectives (2012); Empowerment, Lifelong
Learning and Recovery in Mental Health: Towards a New Paradigm
(2012). |
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Pat Bracken
is currently Clinical Director of the Mental Health Service
in West Cork, Ireland. He trained in medicine, psychiatry
and philosophy in Ireland and in the UK. He was Professor
of Philosophy, Diversity and Mental Health at the University
of Central Lancashire in the years 2006-2008. He was co-editor
of the book Rethinking the Trauma of War with Celia
Petty, published in 1998. His own book Trauma: Culture,
Meaning and Philosophy was published in 2002. With Phil
Thomas, he published the book Postpsychiatry: A New Direction
for Mental Health in 2005. |
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Stefan
Bräunling, born in 1967. Father of two children.
Qualified Psychologist, Master of Public Health. From 1997
to 2007, staff worker at the Berlin
Runaway House, since then, working within the field of
health promotion for the organisation "Gesundheit
Berlin-Brandenburg". Also works with the Berlin Crisis
Services. |
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Ludger Bruckmann.
Born on July 13, 1947. Bicycle mechanic. Since 1980, active
in antipsychiatric self-help organisations. Co-founder of
the Verein zum Schutz vor psychiatrischer Gewalt (Organisation
for the Protection from Psychiatric Violence). Participated
in the development and founding of the Berlin
Runaway House, working there from the beginning in 1996
until he retired in July 2010. 2002, founding member of Für
alle Fälle (In Any Case), board-member from 2002-2012.
Until 2020, for many years board-member of the Verein zum
Schutz vor psychiatrischer Gewalt. Ludger passed away
on November 23, 2020. More > |
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Giuseppe Bucalo
was born in Sydney (Australia) in 1962. Now living in Sicily,
Italy. In 1986, co-founder of the Comitato
d'Iniziativa Antipsichiatrica (Committee of Antipsychiatric
Initiatives) and, in 1994, of Telefono
Viola (Purple Telephone; www.ecn.org/telviola) and
La Sindrome Associativa (The Associative Syndrome)
in Sicily. Since 1996, member of Associazione
Penelope in Taormina. Book publications among others:
Dietro ogni scemo c'è un villaggio (Behind Every
Fool There Is a Village), 1993; Malati di Niente (Sick
of Nothing), 1996; La malattia mentale non esiste (Mental
Illness Does Not Exist), 1996; Dizionario Antipsichiatrico
(The Antipsychiatric Dictionary), 1997; Sentire le
voci (Hearing Voices), 1998. More > |
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Dorothea
S. Buck-Zerchin (1917-2019), sculptor. Victim of forced
sterilization during the Nazi era. After free artistic activity,
taught art and handicraft at the Technical College for Social
Pedagogy in Hamburg from 1969-82. Since 1970, active in the
self-help movement. 1992, co-founder of the German Bundesverband
Psychiatrie-Erfahrener (BPE; Federal Association of [ex-]
Users and Survivors of Psychiatry), now Honorary Chair. 1989,
co-founder of the "Psychosis-Seminars". Countless lectures
in Germany and abroad and contributions in specialised journals
and anthologies. 1997, awarded with the Bundesverdienstkreuz
erster Klasse (decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany
for service to the community). Publications include Auf
der Spur des Morgensterns – Psychose als Selbstfindung
(On the Trail of the Morning Star: Psychosis as Self-Discovery),
edited by Hans Krieger, 1990; Ermutigungen (Encouragements),
2012; Mit meinen herzlichen Grüßen! Ihre
Dorothea Buck. Der Gartenhaus-Briefwechsel (With my heartful
regards! Your Dorothea Buck – The summerhouse correspondence),
2016; The
Sky and Beyond – On the Trail of Dorothea Buck,
film by Alexandra Pohlmeier, 2008. |
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Sarah
Carr. Born 1971 in England. Sarah has had lifelong experiences
of mental distress, with several diagnoses and treatments
along the way. She studied Theology to Master's level. She
now works as a research analyst for a social care organisation
in London, specialising in service user/survivor participation
in research and service development. But her real love is
writing and film making, through which one day she hopes to
speak the unspeakable. |
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Tina Coldham used
mental health services for over 17 years. She has used this
experience to promote user/survivor perspectives in all her
work when she became self-employed as a trainer/lecturer,
researcher and consultant. She became active through setting
up self-help groups, and also being part of a local campaigning
user group. This led to national and international involvement.
Tina was elected to the National Advisory Panel for Mind
Link – the user/survivor arm of national Mind, the
leading mental health charity in England and Wales, and was
Chair for two years. She was also involved in setting up the
National
Survivor User Network in 2005 and just finished a term
as Chair in January 2011. However, Tina still finds time to
actively campaign at grass roots level for better mental health
services which respect human rights.. |
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Bhargavi Davar finished
her Ph.D. in 1993 on the subject of the philosophical foundations
of psychiatry and related sciences. She studied existential
philosophy and psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, critical theory,
anti-psychiatry, the history of psychiatry, and philosophies
of self, mind and freedom. She also contributed to a critique
of psychiatry from women's point of view with several academic
publications. In 1999, she created the Bapu
Trust, a national organisation advocating for change in
the Indian mental health system. She has received several
fellowships, grants and awards, including the prestigious
Ashoka Fellowship. In 2006, she finished a comprehensive study
of traditional healing in India, situating it in the context
of inner life. In February 2015, she received the World
Women Leadership Achievement Award 2015. She has a passion
for research and writing, and lives with her daughter (born
in 1999) in Pune, India, where she practices arts-based therapies
and is an avid gardener. |
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Anne Marie DiGiacomo
has been working in human services since 1977 in non-profit
and community mental health arenas, receiving her Masters
of Social Work in 1986. During the first 18 years of her
career, she worked with children, adolescents and families
in both residential and day treatment settings and private
practice. Since 1996, she has worked at Windhorse
Associates and Windhorse
Community Services in the position of Clinical Director,
Co-Executive Director, Admissions Director and Senior Clinician.
Anne Marie is a practicing Buddhist and brings a contemplative
perspective to her therapeutic work as a psychotherapist
and Sandplay therapist.
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Constance Dollwet,
born in 1964, grew up in Saarland, admitted to a psychiatric
facility in 1986, then started anew in an intentional community
of individuals experienced with psychosis in Wederath/Hunsrück.
Involved in self-help activities of (ex-) users and survivors
of psychiatry with readings, writing seminars, and cabaret
acts as "Schizzobaby" together with Bianca Schmid.
Constance passed away on September 23, 2016. Book publication:
Schreiben – Mein Weg aus der Sprachlosigkeit (Writing:
My Way Out of Speechlessness), 2000. |
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Jeanne Dumont, Ph.D.
is a researcher and psychiatric survivor living in New York
State. She was the principal investigator of the US National
Research Demonstration "Crisis Hostel Project". She has considerable
experience conducting concept mappings for theory development,
program planning and evaluation. She has also served on numerous
mental health related boards, committees and advisory groups.
She served as a co-principal investigator for the project
"Recovery: What helps and what hinders? A national research
project for the development of recovery facilitating system
performance indicators." |
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Merinda
Epstein, living in Australia. Active in mad politics since
1991. Winner of the 2004 Australian Human Rights Award for
her work with people diagnosed with mental illness. Working
for the Victorian Mental
Health Legal Centre, a NGO established to defend the legal
rights of people with psychiatric diagnoses caught up with
forced detainment and treatment, at risk of losing their children
under Family Law statutes or embroiled within the criminal
justice system. Publications and lectures about human rights
issues for women diagnosed with 'Borderline Personality Disorder'
and the relationship between such labels, childhood abuse
and neglect and real or perceived shortfalls of articulated
mad politics. |
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Sandra Escher, PhD,
working as researcher at the University of Maastricht, The
Netherlands. Honorary Researcher at UCE (University of Central
England) in Birmingham. In 2011, she was awarded with the
"Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau" for her work with
children hearing voices. Publications (together with Marius
Romme) include Accepting Voices (1993); Making Sense
of Voices (2000); Living with Voices: 50 stories of
recovery – in addition with Jacqui Dillon, Dirk Corstens
& Mervyn Morris, 2009); Children Hearing Voices: What you
need to know and what you can do (2010); Psychosis
as a Personal Crisis: An experience-based approach (ed.
2012). |
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James B. (Jim) Gottstein.
Born in Washington State in the USA in 1953. Juris Doctor
from Harvard Law School in 1978. Subject to brief psychiatric
hospitalizations in 1982 and 1985. Attorney advocate for
people diagnosed with serious mental illness, including
the successful billion dollar litigation reconstituting
Alaska's one million acre Alaska Mental Health Land Trust,
the 2006 landmark Alaska Supreme Court decision on forced
drugging in Myers vs. Alaska Psychiatric Institute,
the 2007 Witherhorn v. Alaska Psychiatric Institute,
disallowing involuntary commitment for being gravely disabled
unless the person is unable to survive safely in freedom
and the 2008 case, Bigley v. Alaska Psychiatric Institute,
re-affirming psychiatric patients' rights to procedural
and substantive due process. He has served and continues
to serve on various boards and currently devotes most of
his time to the Law Project for Psychiatric
Rights (PsychRights), whose mission is to organize a
serious, strategic, coordinated legal effort against forced
psychiatric drugging. More >
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Chris Hansen. Born
in New Zealand, Chris worked in mental health management
until committed to a psychiatric ward. As a result, she
became involved in user/survivor politics, including lead
roles in the "Like
Minds Like Mine" anti-discrimination campaign (NZ) and
research from a user perspective on workforce development
and mental health service policies. She had been a board
member of the World
Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, and has
also worked as a part of the NZ delegation to the United
Nations working on the Convention for Rights of Persons
With Disabilities. Currently developing work within USA
and internationally, Chris is extending her activism to
writing, teaching and developing intentional peer support
services, particularly alternatives to acute inpatient care.
More >
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Geoff
Hardy has been a gay activist since the early 1970s. A
trained massage therapist and counsellor (College
of Holistic Medicine), he is a Partner at The
Natural Health Centre in Shrewsbury. |
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Petra Hartmann,
born in 1969, education in social pedagogy, 2 children. 2002-08,
staff member at the Runaway
House Villa Stöckle. Since 2010, developing
a center
for mental-health related grievances and information in Berlin.
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Alfred Hausotter.
Born in 1954. Married with two children. Ph.D. in clinical
psychology and health psychology. Between 1974 and 1983 survived
several schizoaffective psychotic episodes. Active since 1997
in assisted living. Book publications: Der GottTeufel –
Innenansicht einer Psychose (The GodDevil: An inner look
at psychosis), 2006; Erntedankfest – Vorgeschichte,
Verlauf und Ausheilung einer Psychose (Thanksgiving: Prehistory,
process and complete healing of a psychosis), 2015. |
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Michael Herrick
was born in 1955. In 1976, became a student of Tibetan Buddhism
under Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Master's degree in Contemplative
Psychotherapy at Naropa
University in Boulder, Colorado, in 1984. Experience
in the mental health field since 1980: worked with the original
Windhorse (Maitri Psychological Services) as a Housemate
and a Team Therapist under Edward Podvoll. Since the early
80s, an avid student of the Integral Approach as presented
by American philosopher Ken Wilber. 2001, return to Windhorse
Associates, Inc. in Northampton, Massachusetts, as Team
Leader. From 2003-08, Executive Director of Windhorse. Now
working in London in private practice and as a tutor at
the Minster-Center,
the leading Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling Training
Institute in Europe.). More >
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Guy Holmes is
a clinical psychologist living and working in Shropshire,
U.K. He specialises in alternatives to psychiatry and challenging
stigma through groupwork, and has published in the areas
of male victims of childhood sexual abuse and the medicalisation
of men's problems. Books include This is Madness: A Critical
Look at Psychiatry and the Future Mental Health Services
(1999) and This is Madness Too: Critical Perspectives
on Mental Health (2001), both edited with Craig Newnes
and Cailzie Dunn, and Psychology in the Real World: Community-based
Groupwork (2010). More >
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Andrew Hughes was
born in 1953 in Rochdale, England. He has been married twice
and has four children. He first received mental health services
at the age of 17, followed by many periods of madness and
several stays in hospitals with compulsory treatment. From
the mid-1980s he became involved in the self-advocacy movement,
providing occasional 'patient perspectives' and critiques
of mental health service provision at conferences and training
events. In 1988 he co-founded, together with Anne Plumb
and Tony Riley, Distress Awareness Training Agency (DATA),
the U.K.'s longest established survivor training group.
Since March 2000 he has been self-employed as a trainer,
researcher and consultancy worker in mental health and the
wider health, social care and disability fields.
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Theodor Itten. Born
in 1952 in Langenthal, Switzerland. From 1971-81 studied psychology
at Middlesex and City University, psychotherapy and ethnology
in London with Ronald D. Laing and Francis Huxley. Member
of the United
Kingdom Council of Psychotherapy. Since 1981, has practiced
psychotherapy
in St. Gallen. From 2003-2008 committee member and from
2008-2011 president of the Schweizer
Psychotherapeutinnen und Psychotherapeuten Verband
(Swiss psychotherapists' association). Active for 12 years
as council member of the Swiss Foundation Pro Mente Sana.
In 2002, founded his own
publishing company (www.ittenbooks.ch). Book publications
include, Rage:
Managing an explosive emotion, 2011; Größenwahn
– Ursachen und Folgen der Selbstüberschätzung
(Megalomania: Causes and consequences of hubris), 2016;
The New Politics of Experience and the Bitter Herbs, 2016,
together with Ron Roberts. More
> |
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Maths Jesperson
was born in 1954. From 1980-1981, inmate of an old mental
hospital. From 1982-1988, producer of the professional theatre
company Mercuriusteatern as well as local politician of the
Green Party in Lund, Sweden. Converted 1984 to Catholicism.
Since 1988, regional officer of the Riksførbundet
för Social och Mental Hælsa (RSMH; Swedish national
organization of users and survivors of psychiatry). In 1991,
founding member of the European
Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. From
1994-1999, editor of the European Newsletter of (ex-) Users
and Survivors of Psychiatry. Since 1999, writer of cultural
articles in a daily newspaper. Parallel research at the University
of Lund (faculty of theatre). Since 2000, actor in the Stumpen-Ensemble,
a theatre group with psychiatric survivors, drug addicts and
homeless people as actors. |
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Kristine Jones, Ph.D.
is an economist working as a research scientist for the Statistics
and Services Research Division, Nathan Kline Institute in
Orangeburg, NY. Her research has included studies on the impact
of having a trauma history on treatment costs associated with
persons using mental health services and on the impact of
managed care compared to fee for service delivery systems
on social cost. She has conducted various cost-effectiveness
analyses of specialty mental health services in operation
in the U.S. Kristine has also done research on methods of
designing payment mechanisms to providers of mental health
services. |
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Hannelore Klafki,
inspired by Marius Romme, Sandra Escher and Ron Coleman; was
the main founding-member of the German Netzwerk
Stimmenhören (Hearing Voices Network) and
was its chairperson for seven years. Since 2003, she was a
board-member of the German Bundesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener
(BPE; Federal Association of [ex-] Users and Survivors
of Psychiatry) and she was a trainer for (ex-)users and
survivors of psychiatry, their friends and supportive relatives,
as well as sympathetic workers within the psychiatric system;
she offered training on such topics as how to deal with hearing
voices, self-help, empowerment and alternatives to psychiatry.
Book publication: Meine
Stimmen – Quälgeister und Schutzengel. Texte einer
engagierten Stimmenhörerin (My Voices: Tormenters
and Guardian Angels, Texts of a Committed Voice Hearer), 2006.
When Hannelore died on September 4, 2005, she was only 53
years old. More > |
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Miriam Krücke,
born in 1979, education as a rehab-pedagogist, advanced coach
and systemic consultant, experiences in the mental health
system, since 2002, involved in anti-psychiatric activities.
Head of the office of the Bundesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener
(BPE; German federal organisation of users and survivors of
psychiatry), working as consultant for other users and survivors
of psychiatry, and organising self-help activities. For her
masters thesis on the subject of "Rehab-Pedagogic", she occupied
herself with the connections between advanced directives and
independent coping strategies in a psychiatric context. |
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Peter Lehmann. Born
in Calw, Black Forest (Germany). Certified pedagogue. Living
as independent publisher in Berlin. Author and editor since
1986, then foundation of Peter
Lehmann Publishing and Mail-order Bookstore. 1989 co-founder
of the Association for Protection against Psychiatric Violence
(running the Runaway-House Berlin). In 1991, co-founder of
the European
Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP);
from 1997-1999, Chair of ENUSP; until 2010, board member.
From 1997 to 2000, board member of joint WFMH-MHE (Mental
Health Europe, independent European section of [and combined
with] World Federation for Mental Health). Since 2004, member
of INTAR
(International Network Toward Alternatives and Recovery).
In 2010, awarded with an Honorary
Doctorate in acknowledgement of "exceptional scientific
and humanitarian contribution to the rights of the people
with psychiatric experience" by the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki. In 2011, awarded the Order
of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the President
of Germany. Publications include, Withdrawal
from Prescribed Psychotropic Drugs (co-edited 2021
with Craig Newnes); Coming
off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics,
Antidepressants, Lithium, Carbamazepine and Tranquilizers
(ed. 2004); Coming
off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics,
Antidepressants, Mood Stabilizers, Ritalin and Tranquilizers
(ebook, ed. 2021); Neue
Antidepressiva, atypische Neuroleptika – Risiken, Placebo-Effekte,
Niedrigdosierung und Alternativen. Mit einem Exkurs zur Wiederkehr
des Elektroschocks (New Antidepressants, Atypical
Neuroleptics: Risks, placebo effects, low doses and alternatives.
With a digression to the return of the electroshock (2017,
in collaboration with Volkmar Aderhold, Marc Rufer and Josef
Zehentbauer; ebook
in 2021). More > |
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Bruce
E. Levine, Ph.D., living in Cincinnati, USA. Clinical
psychologist in private practice since 1985. Many lectures
and workshops throughout North America. Member of the advisory
council of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry
and Psychology and the editorial advisory board of Ethical
Human Psychology and Psychiatry. Regular contributor to
Z Magazine. Articles and interviews in numerous magazines.
Book publications: Commonsense Rebellion: Taking Back Your
Life from Drugs, Shrinks, Corporations, and a World Gone Crazy
(2003), Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to
Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy
(2007). More > |
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Harold A. Maio. I
live in Ft Myers Florida, I am husband, father, son, teacher,
ceramicist, artist, retired editor. Although I from time to
time deal with deep depression, that depression has not stopped
my successes, or diminished my goals. One of those goals is
to make certain that society acknowledges that the psychiatric
industry has mistreated people terribly, and that this mistreatment
must stop—in my lifetime. |
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Rufus May. Living
in England. Rufus works as a clinical psychologist working
in Bradford mental health services. He is one of the organisers
of Evolving
Minds a series of monthly public meetings that explore
alternative approaches to mental health. More >
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Shery Mead, born
1953 in USA. Hospitalized in 1970 and several times in the
early 90's. In response to the devastation of these hospitalizations
she developed some peer support programs including a peer
run crisis alternative. Since that time she has helped develop
many more such programs throughout the US. She is the author
of a number of academic articles and co-author of two books
with Mary Ellen Copeland: WRAP and Peer Support (2004)
and Community Links (2006). |
Photo by Tom Olin
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Kate Millett. Born
1934. Lived from 1961-63 in Japan. Ph.D. from Columbia University,
1970. Lived in New York City and on her farm in Poughkeepsie,
NY, where she ran an Art Colony for Women. Book publications
include: Sexual Politics (1970); Flying (1974);
The Prostitution Papers (1975); Sita (1976);
The Basement (1979); Going to Iran (1982); The
Loony-bin Trip (1990); The Politics of Cruelty
(1994); A. D.: A Memoir (1995); Mother Millett
(2002). Kate died on September 6, 2017. More > |
Photo by Kate Reeder
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Maryse Mitchell-Brody
(1984-): Maryse is a(n): organizer, proud tía,
revolutionary, day-dreamer, tortured artist, badass facilitator,
dancer, loud new yorker, good friend, and mad one. Along with
her work with the Icarus
Project, Maryse is an advocate for sex workers' rights
and a member of the Rock Dove Collective, a radical community
health exchange. Born and raised in New York City, she facilitates
workshops that examine the links between sexual shame, trauma
and emotional well-being, and explore the potential for sex
as a healing modality. |
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David
W. Oaks is a leader in the international psychiatric
survivors movement also known as the "Mad Movement." He
has been a human rights activist to transform mental health
care since 1976. He experienced five lock-ups in psychiatric
institutions, typical diagnoses, forced injections, etc.
After joining the Mad Movement, he graduated with honors
in 1977 and became free of the mental health system using
non-drug alternatives. He is now director of MindFreedom
International. He lectures in many countries all over
the world. He now lives with his wife Debra in Eugene, Oregon,
USA.
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Peter Rippmann,
Ph.D., born in 1925 in Switzerland in Stein am Rhein, began
with Germanic studies, has worked over 40 years as a senior
editor of the critical biweekly Der Schweizerische Beobachter
(The Swiss Observer). Among other topics, he was instrumental
in uncovering and publishing articles about the responsibility
of the Swiss authorities' in the discriminatory politics of
the Nazi-regime vis-à-vis Jewish refugees. Served as
well for many years as board member of the Swizz psychiatry-critical
non-profit organisation PSYCHEX.
Peter died on July 30, 2010. More > |
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Marius Romme was
Professor for Social Psychiatry at the University of Maastricht,
The Netherlands, from 1974 to 1999, and afterwards Visiting
Professor at the University of Central England in Birmingham.
Awarded with the "Knight in the Order van de Nederlandse
Leeuw". Since 1987 in collaboration with Sandra Escher,
he has studied the phenomenon of hearing voices, focusing
on the experience of the voice hearers. Together they laid
the foundation for the international hearing voices movement
and published articles and books, including Accepting
Voices (1993); Making Sense of Voices (2000);
Living with Voices: 50 stories of recovery –
in addition with Jacqui Dillon, Dirk Corstens & Mervyn Morris,
2009); Children Hearing Voices: What you need to know
and what you can do (2010); Psychosis as a Personal
Crisis: An experience-based approach (ed. 2012).
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Marc
Rufer, M.D. Long-standing critic of psychiatric diagnostic
systems, psychopharmacology and the use of force in psychiatry.
Good contacts and exchange with independent (ex-) users and
survivors of psychiatry. Book publications: Irrsinn Psychiatrie
(Insane Psychiatry), 1988; 4th edition 2009; Wer ist
irr? (Who's Crazy?), 1991; Glückspillen. Ecstasy,
Prozac und das Comeback der Psychopharmaka (Happy Pills: Ecstasy,
Prozac and the Comeback of Psychotropic Drugs), 1995;
Neue
Antidepressiva, atypische Neuroleptika – Risiken, Placebo-Effekte,
Niedrigdosierung und Alternativen. Mit einem Exkurs zur Wiederkehr
des Elektroschocks (New Antidepressants, Atypical
Neuroleptics: Risks, placebo effects, low doses and alternatives.
With a digression to the return of the electroshock (2017,
in collaboration with Volkmar Aderhold, Peter Lehmann and
Josef Zehentbauer; ebook
2021). More > |
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Gisela Sartori.
Born 1952 in Endingen, southern Germany. MA in community psychology
from Free University of Berlin. Emigrated to Canada in 1985,
and has lived and worked in Canada's far north for the last
twenty years. Founder and long-time co-ordinator of Yukon's
Second Opinion Society, a grassroots community organization
offering alternatives to psychiatry. Developed an integrative
non-medical approach to working with aboriginal and non-aboriginal
people in emotional and social distress. Has been involved
with the antipsychiatry movement since 1980, and is a member
of the National
Association of Rights, Protection and Advocacy (NARPA)
since 1992, as well as MindFreedom
International and International Center for the Study of
Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP). Former board member of
World
Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP),
and current member of International
Network Toward Alternatives and Recovery (INTAR). Currently
training in integrative body psychotherapy and transformational
group process and living on Gabriola Island near Vancouver.
Author of Towards Empathy (1995), a training resource
to help womens' shelters provide equal access for psychiatrized
women. |
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Erich Schützendorf,
born in 1949, married with three children. Studied education,
psychology and sociology. Adult education program faculty
leader on the subject of aging, lecturer for social gerontology
at the college of Niederrhein. Over thirty years of interest
in people with dementia. More recently, dealing with his own
aging process and the development of ideas for life as an
old man, who might one day become dependent on others. Publications
include Das Recht der Alten auf Eigensinn (The Right
of the Elderly to Obstinacy), 3rd edition 2004; In
Ruhe verrückt werden dürfen (Getting Crazy
In Peace), in collaboration with Helmut Wallrafen-Dreisow,
12th edition 2004; Wer pflegt, muss sich pflegen (To Work
as a Carer, You Have to Care for Yourself), 2006; In
Ruhe alt werden können (Getting Old in Peace), 2nd
edition 2006. |
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Jaakko Seikkula,
Professor of psychotherapy at the Department of Psychology
University of Jyväkylä in Finland. Clinical psychologist,
psychotherapist (advance specialist level) and family therapy
trainer. He has been mainly involved in developing family
and social network based practices in psychiatry for patients
with psychoses and other severe mental health crises. |
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Andy Smith. Lives
on South coast of England with two goldfish and beautiful
dawn skies. |
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Zoran
Solomun. Film director, born in 1953 in Pula, Istria.
From 1973-77, studied at the Belgrade Academy for Theater,
Film, Radio and Television. From 1985-90, leader of the independent
film group Pokret (Movement) in Belgrade. Collaboration
with various people and groups involved in anti-psychiatry.
Since 1990, has lived in Berlin. In 1997, founded the film
production company Ohne
Gepäck (Without Luggage). Films include Ah,
jedan podanik! (Oh! A Subject! – 1989, a documentary
about the central psychiatric madhouse in Belgrade); Jedna
zardjala ludnica (A rusty mental institution –
1990, a documentary about alternatives to psychiatry); Müde
Weggefährten (Tired Companions – 1996, a feature
film, awarded the Max-Ophüls-Prize in 1997); Der
Chinesische Markt (The Chinese Market – 2000, a documentary,
awarded the ARTE Documentary Film Prize in 2001); Super
Art Market (2009 – documentary). More > |
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Peter Stastny was
born in Vienna, Austria, where he graduated from medical
school in 1976. Since 1978 he has been working and residing
in New York City. Taught at the Albert Einstein College
of Medicine in the Bronx until 2009 and has conducted several
publically funded research projects in the area of vocational
rehabilitation, social support and self-help, in collaboration
with individuals who had survived personal crises and psychiatric
interventions. Currently, he is working on the development
of alternative services that obviate psychiatric intervention
and offer autonomous paths towards recovery and full integration.
These activities have engendered a close collaboration with
the user-survivor movement, as manifested by joint research
projects, publications, service demonstrations, and community
work. He is a founding member of the International
Network Toward Alternatives and Recovery (INTAR). More >
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Chris
Stevenson, Professor of Mental Health Nursing in Dublin
City University, has 25 years working in the U.K. as a nurse
within psychiatry and on its margins, offering family meetings
to people experiencing psychosis and eating distress. Chris
is a founding member of the Institute
for Mental Health Recovery, Ireland. Over a 100 publications,
books and articles. Currently, heading a programme of suicidology
research. Altschul award for psychiatric nursing scholarship
in 2000. Book publications: Good Practice Guide (2005)
for working in strategic partnership with people experienced
in mental health services; Care of the Suicidal Person
(2007, co-authored with John Cutcliffe). |
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Dan
Taylor. Born in 1963, grew up and is still living in
Accra, Ghana. Diploma in Journalism and Marketing. In 2004,
co-founder of MindFreedom Ghana to fight for human rights
and better living- and treatment-conditions for (ex-) users
and survivors of psychiatry. He is secretary of MindFreedom
Ghana, has published articles in Ghanaian newspapers and
abroad, organized symposia on prevention and rehabilitation
in the mental health field, is engaged in radio and TV shows,
and has organized a protest march against human rights abuses
and stigma in psychiatry in July 2006 in Accra with 350
people. Dan calls for support and assistance to accentuate
and strengthen the work of MindFreedom Ghana in a developing
country like Ghana. E-Mail contact: mindfreedomghana yahoo.co.uk
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Philip
Thomas. Professor of Philosophy, Diversity and Mental
Health at the University of Central Lancashire, England. Chair
of Sharing
Voices Bradford, a community development project working
with Bradford's Black and Minority Ethnic communities. Co-author
of the column Postpsychiatry in Open Mind magazine.
Founder member and co-chair of the Critical
Psychiatry Network in Britain. Book publications: Dialectics
of Schizophrenia (1997), Voices of Reason, Voices of
Insanity (2000, co-authored with Ivan Leudar), Postpsychiatry
(2005, co-authored with Pat Bracken). |
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Janet (Jan) Wallcraft
was born in England. PhD in 2002. Research fellow of Birmingham
University and University of Hertfordshire. Freelance mental
health consultant and researcher. From 1987 to 1992, co-ordinator
of Mind's user network, Mindlink.
In 1992, co-founder of the U.K.
Advocacy Network. From 1987 to 1990, member of Survivors
Speak Out's national committee. 1997 to 1999, lead researcher
on the user-led Strategies for Living project at the Mental
Health Foundation. Author of Healing
Minds (1998); co-author of Handbook
of Service User Involvement in Mental Health Research
(2009); On
Our Own Terms: Users and Survivors of Mental Health Services
Working Together for Support and Change (2003); Being
There In A Crisis (1997); contributions in Social
Perspectives in Mental Health (2005); Mental
Health at the Crossroads (2005). Jan passed away in
March 2020. |
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David Webb, born
in 1955, has completed a PhD on suicide as a crisis of the
self at Victoria University in 2005 in Melbourne, Australia.
This research, motivated by David's personal history of suicide
attempts, shows that first-person knowledge of suicidality
is necessary to understand suicide, but that the first-person
voice is systematically excluded from current suicide research.
During his research, he has embraced Mad Culture as a liberating
community of people fighting for greater depth, sensitivity,
compassion and justice for those struggling for mental, emotional,
social and spiritual wellbeing. Prior to his years of madness,
David worked in the computer software industry as a programmer,
designer and analyst, and as a university lecturer. He has
lived in New York, Delhi and London and now he lives in Castlemaine,
an old goldrush town near Melbourne. Book publication:
Thinking about suicide: Contemplating and comprehending
the urge to die (2010). More
publications > |
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Uta Wehde, born
in 1963, psychologist. Since 1994, executive director of
the Ambulante
Dienste (Ambulatory Services) association in
Berlin. Conceptualization and implementation of the Berlin
Runaway House, founding member of the Verein zum
Schutz vor psychiatrischer Gewalt (Organisation for
the Protection from Psychiatric Violence) and long activity
on the board. Co-founder and board member of Für
alle Fälle (In Any Case). Publications critical
of psychiatry, and various contributions. Author of Das
Weglaufhaus – Zufluchtsort für Psychiatriebetroffene
(The
Runaway-house: Asylum for (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry),
1991. More >
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Scott Welsch was
born in New York State in 1969. He studied documentary filmmaking
at Harvard College and developed manic-depressive symptoms
during his senior year in 1990. Among other things, Scott
likes music, trees, games, film, chocolate, ultimate Frisbee,
and Indian food. Scott especially enjoys the spontaneity of
children and is considering a career as a play therapist. |
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Salma
Yasmeen. Living in U.K. Counselling and communication
studies. Background as a psychiatric nurse, has worked in
both the statutory mental health sector and the voluntary
sector. Previously involved in setting up and leading Sharing
Voices Bradford, which has pioneered the use of Community
development approaches in mental health. 2006, leading and
managing a project that is part of a national programme
to tackle inequalities in mental health services for black
and minority ethnic communities.
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Photo by Tom Olin
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Laura
Ziegler. Living in USA. In 1976, at age 17 she was locked
up, diagnosed, and forcibly drugged until a court ordered
it stopped. Active in the mad movement since 1983, she has
been a paralegal at a mental disability law clinic, monitored
mental health legal proceedings, participated in a half-year
homeless protest encampment outside New York City Hall,
and expressed her opposition to psychiatric oppression through
testimony, whistleblowing, poetry, civil disobedience and
street theater. Granddaughter of a victim of T4. Past president
of NARPA (National
Association of Rights, Protection and Advocacy). Since
1996, she has lobbied for disability rights and prisoners
rights at the Vermont Statehouse.
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Ursula (Uschi) Zingler,
born 1939, married, mother and grandmother. 1975-2004, editor
and proofreader at a scientific publishing house. In 1981,
workplace harassment caused her depression. Since 1982, involved
in the psychiatric reform movement. Committee work beginning
in 1983, including as representative of the German Bundesverband
Psychiatrie-Erfahrener (BPE) (Federal Association of [ex-]
Users and Survivors of Psychiatry) in the Workshop for
Further Development of Psychiatric Care at the Ministry
of Health. 1991-93 instrumental in the merger of (ex-) users
and survivors of psychiatry on all levels. Board member of
the BPE since its founding in 1992. In this role, she took
a critical position on various topics. 2007, awarded with
the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (decoration of the
Federal Republic of Germany for service to the community).
Ursula passed away on January 18, 2010. More > |
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