The Radical Politics of Madness-Micha Frazer-Carroll

08/30/23 • 42 min

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Micha Frazer-Carroll is a writer, editor, and advocate whose work ventures into the radical politics of madness and mental health. Our exploration will excavate the connections between mental health, power structures, societal norms, liberation, and disability justice.

A columnist at the Independent and previously an editor for publications such as the Guardian, gal-dem, and Blueprint, a mental health magazine that she founded, Micha has consistently used her voice to challenge mainstream, decontextualized, and depoliticized discourses in psychology and psychiatry. As a result, Micha has positioned herself at the forefront of redefining how we approach and understand madness in our society.

Her book, "Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health," published by Pluto Press, is an insightful journey that unearths mental health as a political issue, extending beyond mere personal concern. It challenges our understanding of mental health by connecting it to capitalism, racism, disability justice, queer liberation, and other social frameworks.

In Mad World, she is breaking barriers and creating new ways to understand care, empathy, and mental health itself. It’s been hailed as a “radical antidote” to how we usually think about these subjects, a guide for anyone who wants to challenge the status quo in our fields.

As we discuss "The Radical Politics of Madness" today, we'll explore what it means to reframe mental health as an urgent political concern and how Micha's work serves as a testament to the transformative power of radical thinking in a world often confined by labels, diagnoses, and societal constraints.

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Mad in America podcasts and reports are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Thomas Jobe Fund.

Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow.

To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

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Mad in America podcasts and reports are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Thomas Jobe Fund.

Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow.

To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

Previous Episode

Can Psychosocial Disability Decolonize Mental Health? A Conversation with Luis Arroyo and Justin Karter

Today on the Mad in America podcast we share a conversation between Luis Gerardo Arroyo Lynn and Justin Karter.

Luis conducted this conversation in his role as an editor of Mad in Mexico. Established in September 2021, Mad in Mexico is not just an extension but an essential limb of the international initiative of Mad In America. Its mission resonates with the core values of challenging conventional thinking around mental health, focusing on the Spanish-speaking communities of South and Central America as well as the United States.

Luis graduated from Universidad La Salle and is now pursuing a master’s degree in Social Psychology of Groups and Institutions at UAM Xochimilco. He is currently conducting research on “Depsychiatrization of Mental Health,” with an interest in the fields of critical psychology, anti-psychiatry, and anti-speciesism.

Luis is in conversation today with Mad in America’s own Justin M. Karter, whose multidisciplinary work stands at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, mad studies, and global mental health. As a counseling psychologist, an Instructor for the Center for Psychological Humanities & Ethics at Boston College, and the lead research news editor at Mad in America since 2015, Justin’s approach to mental health goes beyond clinical practice.

In the spotlight is Justin’s research titled “Inclusion Toward Transformation: Psychosocial Disability Advocacy and Global Mental Health.” This study, completed in August 2021, addresses pressing concerns in modern mental health discourse. It critiques the prevailing Western notions that shape the Movement for Global Mental Health (MGMH) and champions a rights-based perspective, considering cultural, political, and economic conditions.

This interview explores the crux of Justin’s research, examining the transformative potential of an integrated psychosocial disability framework. By interrogating and deconstructing mainstream discourses, this conversation promises to shed light on how we can better serve those with lived experiences of mental distress, transcending traditional boundaries and embracing a more rights-based, inclusive approach. This conversation aims to redefine the way we approach mental health, madness, psychiatry, and psychological suffering, in a world that desperately needs a compassionate, critical perspective.

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Mad in America podcasts and reports are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Thomas Jobe Fund.

Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow.

To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

Next Episode

Sacred Conversations: A Talk with Susan Swim and a Father Whose Daughter Found Healing

We have two guests today. One is Susan Swim, executive director of the Now I See A Person Institute, which she created in 2007 to provide therapy and counseling to kids, teens, adults, families and others who haven’t found healing in the usual approaches to therapy and treatment. From its base in Los Angeles County, California, the Institute provides both in-person services, including equine therapy, and virtual sessions—and offers training as well.

An expert in collaborative dialogical practices, Susan Swim is also a researcher whose topics include family reunification, helping people recover from trauma after previously unsuccessful treatments, and process ethics—which she’s described as “what is right and good for every client in therapy.”

She’s also on the faculty of the Houston Galveston Institute, where she first started teaching in the early 1980s. In the past she worked for the Taos Institute and taught at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California. She’s written extensively on many topics and is the former editor of the Journal of Systemic Therapies.

Our other guest today is the father of a daughter who was first hospitalized at age 13 and endured years of psychiatric treatment, diagnoses, drugs, and more hospitalizations before embarking on a path to healing at the Institute.

The father will remain anonymous.

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Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA and its mission to rethink psychiatry, please help us continue to survive and grow by making a donation.

Mad in America podcasts and reports are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Thomas Jobe Fund.

To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here