Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness
Writings by Icarus members and collaborators on everything from medication to crisis to magic and back again. Want to write an article for the site? Click here.
Steven Morgan's excellent deconstruction of the scientific myths and politics that go into mental health diagnosis and treatment, including a detailed resource section.
I've struggled with melancholy since early youth-ranging from suicidal crisis-to blanketing sorrow-to months of numb depression. Sometimes sadness comes when I see a styrofoam cup and think about the environmental damage our society is causing; when I think about rape and war; or when I think about a friend in an abusive relationship. Sometimes I'm sad for no clear reason. Feeling sad about the world, and tending toward depression in general, has been a major motivating force for my activism, yet conversely, that same sensitivity can have a paralyzing effect which prevents me from being the non-stop activist I idealize. Learning to work with my depression, rather than against it has been necessary. I learn to try to flow with my moods, fighting the sorrow less, accepting the melancholy into my life as a teacher who keeps me in touch with the destruction of the planet.
In order to understand mental health we need a new language that speaks from the point of view of the person who wants to heal, not from the psychiatric industry, which seeks to judge and categorize people, with the intent of medicating them. These labels that have been created to describe mental illness; bipolar disorder, depression, disassociative identity disorder, etcetera. These labels were created for psychiatrists so that they could diagnosis their patients. What do they do for you and I?
Feminist professor Paula Caplan on the need to not focus on therapy and drugs to help US war in Iraq vets. From Tikkun magazine. http://paulajcaplan.net/files/Vets_are_not_cr.pdf http://paulajcaplan.net/ and www.psychdiagnosis.net
