I'm currently reading two books on madness from a radical perspective, and so mental health
One is Madness and Civilization from Michel Foucault
The other is Turn Illness into a Weapon from the Socialist Patients' Collective. The book was curiously prefaced by Sartre
Both of them try to expand the critique of psychiatry to a critique of the whole medical regime. I find a downside on Foucault's book that he seemed to assume that madness exist, missing an initial insight that the definition of mad and normal is utterly arbitrary, but also it's interesting to notice Foucault pointing out that madness in a medical way emerged from the imperatives of the work ethics
The SPK was a very interesting revolutionary collective from the 60s who believed that illness is a inevitable condition under capitalism and called for the revolutionary overthrow of the doctor class. It's interesting to notice that in the 60s, psychiatry was largely attacked by the whole revolutionary movement. It's sad that the reaction in the 70s and 80s meant a recovery of psychiatry, and today most radical people tend to take it as even positive
While I definitely don't feel trusting of psychiatry and I'm critical of the way mental health is usually analyzed, by objective specialists rather than collectively by those of us who share whatever experience, I guess I also think we should have access to all the tools and resources, but under our control.
But yeah,the SPK is a very important experience and I wish more of us (including myself) were more aware of it
John Holt is the original unschooling guy and it's always surprised me he's not more popular currently. are u familiar with his work? He started off as a pretty mainstream school reformer in the 50s and 60s, but by the end of his career he was just "get your kids out of these places and if you can't afford to get them out, teach them to cheat"
i recommend "learning all the time," "how children learn" or really any of his 10 books. it's kind of pleasantly shocking that something written so long ago and from an (at first) non "political" branded perspective has the clear voice around the insanely vicious regulation and life-sabotage that goes on in schools. i recommend it to anyone interested in "the normative effects of capitalist labor discipline" even if they dont have kids. we were all kids once. i wish i'd read this author in junior high
I read John Holt and others before becoming pregnant with my now 14-year old daughter. I’ve unschooled her her whole life. So recommend unschooling philosophy but I understand not everyone has the privilege of carrying it out fully. However, we can always teach our children to only give the appearance of conformity when necessary and to speak the truth about the system at home.
No, I wasn't familiar with John Holt. Thanks so much for this recommendation! And it comes at a great time, a friend was just asking me for resources like this.
I'm currently reading two books on madness from a radical perspective, and so mental health
One is Madness and Civilization from Michel Foucault
The other is Turn Illness into a Weapon from the Socialist Patients' Collective. The book was curiously prefaced by Sartre
Both of them try to expand the critique of psychiatry to a critique of the whole medical regime. I find a downside on Foucault's book that he seemed to assume that madness exist, missing an initial insight that the definition of mad and normal is utterly arbitrary, but also it's interesting to notice Foucault pointing out that madness in a medical way emerged from the imperatives of the work ethics
The SPK was a very interesting revolutionary collective from the 60s who believed that illness is a inevitable condition under capitalism and called for the revolutionary overthrow of the doctor class. It's interesting to notice that in the 60s, psychiatry was largely attacked by the whole revolutionary movement. It's sad that the reaction in the 70s and 80s meant a recovery of psychiatry, and today most radical people tend to take it as even positive
While I definitely don't feel trusting of psychiatry and I'm critical of the way mental health is usually analyzed, by objective specialists rather than collectively by those of us who share whatever experience, I guess I also think we should have access to all the tools and resources, but under our control.
But yeah,the SPK is a very important experience and I wish more of us (including myself) were more aware of it
John Holt is the original unschooling guy and it's always surprised me he's not more popular currently. are u familiar with his work? He started off as a pretty mainstream school reformer in the 50s and 60s, but by the end of his career he was just "get your kids out of these places and if you can't afford to get them out, teach them to cheat"
i recommend "learning all the time," "how children learn" or really any of his 10 books. it's kind of pleasantly shocking that something written so long ago and from an (at first) non "political" branded perspective has the clear voice around the insanely vicious regulation and life-sabotage that goes on in schools. i recommend it to anyone interested in "the normative effects of capitalist labor discipline" even if they dont have kids. we were all kids once. i wish i'd read this author in junior high
I read John Holt and others before becoming pregnant with my now 14-year old daughter. I’ve unschooled her her whole life. So recommend unschooling philosophy but I understand not everyone has the privilege of carrying it out fully. However, we can always teach our children to only give the appearance of conformity when necessary and to speak the truth about the system at home.
No, I wasn't familiar with John Holt. Thanks so much for this recommendation! And it comes at a great time, a friend was just asking me for resources like this.