.....you'll hear the 'under-lingo' and you'll diagnose the person next to you right away!

"When a body catch a body, coming through the rye."

R.I.P. J.D. Salinger

I have to wonder if the reticence about speaking out on abuses/prejudice aimed at people with a psychiatric label, or about the inherently oppressive nature of psychiatry and the 'mental health' system themselves isn't rooted in peoples' fear of their own capacity for madness as well as being rooted in another long-standing historical prejudice.

I shared this story at an Icarus meeting in Olympia attended by Will Hall. Will encouraged me to write it down and share it with the Icarus community at large - here it is!

Kirk told me that he, Ben and Ben's brother Nick were going to drink mushroom tea and go for a walk in the woods, and that I was welcome to join if I was so inclined.

This post takes on the curiously popularized notion--in Julie Cameron's book The Artist's Way--of the categorical 'badness' of people she (and her "expert" ilk) seek to reduce and label, and then promote that their fellows ignore them, until they get professional "help". Crucially, she (and the usual routine of "experts" "just doing their jobs") don't shed light on the reality that such "crazy-makers" are quite likely only exhibiting SYMPTOMS of their pain, even when their symptoms are INTENSE and not easy to be around. The popularized thing to do? IGNORE the most sensitive and go back to work doing what you can "only" do! DON'T try to look behind their pain and help them articulate themselves, say, via any truly meaningful community!! NO, THAT'S not for YOU laypersons/"non-experts" to "play" around with!! (BAD DOG!)

Icaristas Sam Kendakur, Will Hall, and Bonfire Madigan Shive presented at the Rethinking Psychiatric Crisis: Alternative Responses to First Breaks conference in New York City. They joined more than 200 researchers, people with psychiatric diagnoses, policymakers, clinicians, advocates, and family members from several countries including Finland and the UK to discuss effective hospital, labeling, and force alternatives. Check out the slideshow here, and more info at the International Network Towards Alternatives for Recovery website.

I should not, though sometimes I do and then it gets me in trouble. I should not wrap my mind around such fantasies. I should not believe in them. They are not real.