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The Spiritual Gift of Madness: The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement
Many of the great prophets of the past experienced madness--a breakdown followed by a breakthrough, spiritual death followed by rebirth. With the advent of modern psychiatry, the budding prophets of today are captured and transformed into chronic mental patients before they can flower into the visionaries and mystics they were intended to become. As we approach the tipping point between extinction and global spiritual awakening, there is a deep need for these prophets to embrace their spiritual gifts. To make this happen, we must learn to respect the sanctity of madness. We need to cultivate Mad Pride.
Exploring the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement as well as building upon psychiatrist R. D. Laing’s revolutionary theories, Seth Farber, Ph.D., explains that diagnosing people as mad has more to do with social control than therapy. Many of those labeled as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other kinds of “mad” are not ill but simply experiencing different forms of spiritual awakening: they are seeing and feeling what is wrong with society and what needs to be done to change it. Farber shares his interviews with former schizophrenics who now lead successful and inspiring lives. He shows that it is impossible for society to change as long as the mad are suppressed because they are our catalysts of social change. By reclaiming their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural revitalization, the mad--by seeding new visions for our future--can help humanity overcome the spiritual crisis that endangers our survival and lead us to a higher and long-awaited stage of spiritual development.
Exploring the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement as well as building upon psychiatrist R. D. Laing’s revolutionary theories, Seth Farber, Ph.D., explains that diagnosing people as mad has more to do with social control than therapy. Many of those labeled as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other kinds of “mad” are not ill but simply experiencing different forms of spiritual awakening: they are seeing and feeling what is wrong with society and what needs to be done to change it. Farber shares his interviews with former schizophrenics who now lead successful and inspiring lives. He shows that it is impossible for society to change as long as the mad are suppressed because they are our catalysts of social change. By reclaiming their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural revitalization, the mad--by seeding new visions for our future--can help humanity overcome the spiritual crisis that endangers our survival and lead us to a higher and long-awaited stage of spiritual development.
464 pages, Paperback
First published April 17, 2012
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About the author
Seth Farber
9 books6 followersDr. Seth Farber is a writer, social critic, dissident psychologist (he received his doctorate in 1984),visionary, activist (in the human rights, Green and anti-war movements -- and a supporter of animal rights) and co-founder of the Network Against Coercive Psychiatry (1988). His newest and most important book was just released in May,The Spiritual Gift of Madness:The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement. (The Foreword is written by internationally renowned writer, feminist and human rights advocate Kate Millett, author of Sexual Politics and The Loony Bin Trip.)Dr Farber has had four books published previously, including a book on Jewish critics of Israel, and numerous essays and articles. A critic of the mental health system, he has been a guest on many television and radio shows. His first book Madness, Heresy and the Rumor of Angels: The Revolt Against the Mental Health System (Open Court, Chicago, 1993) contained a foreword by Thomas Szasz. The publication of his memoir Lunching with Lunatics: Adventures of a Renegade Psychologist has been postponed until the time is propitious.(See excerpts below right.) Dr Farber is also an editor of the pioneering scholarly review The Journal of Mind and Behavior. He can be reached at seth17279@aol.com
(sethhfarber.com)
(sethhfarber.com)
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 5, 2020
In The Spiritual Gift of Madness, Seth Farber interviews half a dozen people who have had negative experiences with western psychology as well as experts in mental health. His thesis is the mental health system as it is values medication over other types of therapy and, because of this misguided focus, harms the very people it is attempting to help.
He is a champion of the Mad Pride movement, a group that seeks to celebrate and assist those suffering from mental health issues to embrace who they are rather than medicating it away.
"... helping the mad does not mean drugging or coaxing them into a state of "adjustment," but rather appreciating the state of madness for what it is: an existential clearing in the jungle of our insane modern society that potentially leads into the realm of true sanity, which, in the world today, means a state of creative maladjustment." pg 124
I should mention that Farber doesn't use "mad" in a negative way, rather he uses it to highlight how individuals with different viewpoints from the rest of society are marginalized and sedated into silence. He puts forward the idea that insanity is believing everyone must view the world in the same manner or be ostracized for it. He holds up society's repeated failures to handle issues like global warming to racial and gender equality as evidence of the insanity of the world.
"Now one of the things that's so detrimental about the hospitalization is the power impact of being treated like a patient - people end up believing they're chronically mentally ill." pg 44
Farber believes mental illness is a transition to a new, potentially powerful state of being that, as a modern society, we quash before it's completed. He points out that many of the great prophets and visionaries from history had, what we would now call, complete breakdowns before their epic breakthroughs.
"... a few weeks of mania could give one access to a sense of understanding that it could take 'years of meditation' to achieve, access to visions of 'the wholeness' of the universe and 'the interconnected nature of love, access to a sense of time and space that allows one to discern what is and what is not important.'" pg 21
Instead of medication and psychiatric facilities, Farber would like to see the creation of safe havens for people going through this process so they could assimilate whatever is going on in their minds before going back to the rest of society. That would be for the experiencer's protection as well as the public.
I think Farber brings up important issues in this book. As someone who has struggled with mental illness, I've viewed the system from the inside and recognize some of the problems he points out. There's the stigma of the diagnosis and the embarrassment of feeling separated from "normal". There's the expectation you will take your meds from the day you're labeled until you die, no matter the side effects.
But, worst of all, is feeling like you can't trust what's going on in your head because it went so spectacularly wrong before and what's to prevent it from going sideways again.
I agree some changes need to be made to the system and, as a society, perhaps we can do a better job minimizing stigma, maximizing communication, and helping people live in a happy and healthy manner that they choose.
However, I feel like Farber goes too far in his insistence that the "mad" are the future. That somehow they hold the keys to a paradise on earth if only we'd let them share their messages unfettered.
In the midst of my psychosis in 2009, I wouldn't have wanted any of the nightmares in my head to permanently affect my future or my family. If there are lessons to be learned from it, maybe it's an individual message for the people undergoing the change rather than expecting it to be universal lessons, applicable for everyone.
But, that's my two cents. I certainly don't have all the answers, but The Spiritual Gift of Madness asks some interesting questions.
Recommended for seekers who are interested in a different way to both approach and treat those with mental illnesses or for those who have gone "through the looking glass" and are now viewing the world from the other side, like me and the people in this book and many, many others.
He is a champion of the Mad Pride movement, a group that seeks to celebrate and assist those suffering from mental health issues to embrace who they are rather than medicating it away.
"... helping the mad does not mean drugging or coaxing them into a state of "adjustment," but rather appreciating the state of madness for what it is: an existential clearing in the jungle of our insane modern society that potentially leads into the realm of true sanity, which, in the world today, means a state of creative maladjustment." pg 124
I should mention that Farber doesn't use "mad" in a negative way, rather he uses it to highlight how individuals with different viewpoints from the rest of society are marginalized and sedated into silence. He puts forward the idea that insanity is believing everyone must view the world in the same manner or be ostracized for it. He holds up society's repeated failures to handle issues like global warming to racial and gender equality as evidence of the insanity of the world.
"Now one of the things that's so detrimental about the hospitalization is the power impact of being treated like a patient - people end up believing they're chronically mentally ill." pg 44
Farber believes mental illness is a transition to a new, potentially powerful state of being that, as a modern society, we quash before it's completed. He points out that many of the great prophets and visionaries from history had, what we would now call, complete breakdowns before their epic breakthroughs.
"... a few weeks of mania could give one access to a sense of understanding that it could take 'years of meditation' to achieve, access to visions of 'the wholeness' of the universe and 'the interconnected nature of love, access to a sense of time and space that allows one to discern what is and what is not important.'" pg 21
Instead of medication and psychiatric facilities, Farber would like to see the creation of safe havens for people going through this process so they could assimilate whatever is going on in their minds before going back to the rest of society. That would be for the experiencer's protection as well as the public.
I think Farber brings up important issues in this book. As someone who has struggled with mental illness, I've viewed the system from the inside and recognize some of the problems he points out. There's the stigma of the diagnosis and the embarrassment of feeling separated from "normal". There's the expectation you will take your meds from the day you're labeled until you die, no matter the side effects.
But, worst of all, is feeling like you can't trust what's going on in your head because it went so spectacularly wrong before and what's to prevent it from going sideways again.
I agree some changes need to be made to the system and, as a society, perhaps we can do a better job minimizing stigma, maximizing communication, and helping people live in a happy and healthy manner that they choose.
However, I feel like Farber goes too far in his insistence that the "mad" are the future. That somehow they hold the keys to a paradise on earth if only we'd let them share their messages unfettered.
In the midst of my psychosis in 2009, I wouldn't have wanted any of the nightmares in my head to permanently affect my future or my family. If there are lessons to be learned from it, maybe it's an individual message for the people undergoing the change rather than expecting it to be universal lessons, applicable for everyone.
But, that's my two cents. I certainly don't have all the answers, but The Spiritual Gift of Madness asks some interesting questions.
Recommended for seekers who are interested in a different way to both approach and treat those with mental illnesses or for those who have gone "through the looking glass" and are now viewing the world from the other side, like me and the people in this book and many, many others.
December 9, 2022
Wow. No.
So, Farber's primary assumption in this book is that there exists an ontological category of "Mad people" independent, apparently, of sociocultural factors, systematic oppression, capitalism, etc. He uses this assumption to, variously, denigrate his interviewees for disagreeing with him on their own lived experiences, both as a narrator and to their faces.
This is all done in pursuit of the argument structuring this book, that this ontological category of "Mad people," in fact, constitute a messianic class designed to deliver a contemporary, drugged monoculture (sheeple, I guess?) from themselves. Didn't realize I was born destined to save the world; guess I didn't get the memo?
Apart from the ahistorical and generalizing assessments of left feminist movements (evidently there was zero Mad organizing/anti-psych consciousness among them - yeah, okay) and complete elision of disability organizing (you see, we're not disabled, we're actually super-special saviors), the main evidence he uses for this argument are hackneyed religious appropriations, primarily, though not exclusively, from Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and "Native American Shamanism".
This book is shamefully absurd, and I'm embarrassed on behalf of the Mad movement.
I looked up the press, and they also publish books about curing chronic illnesses with antioxidants, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
So, Farber's primary assumption in this book is that there exists an ontological category of "Mad people" independent, apparently, of sociocultural factors, systematic oppression, capitalism, etc. He uses this assumption to, variously, denigrate his interviewees for disagreeing with him on their own lived experiences, both as a narrator and to their faces.
This is all done in pursuit of the argument structuring this book, that this ontological category of "Mad people," in fact, constitute a messianic class designed to deliver a contemporary, drugged monoculture (sheeple, I guess?) from themselves. Didn't realize I was born destined to save the world; guess I didn't get the memo?
Apart from the ahistorical and generalizing assessments of left feminist movements (evidently there was zero Mad organizing/anti-psych consciousness among them - yeah, okay) and complete elision of disability organizing (you see, we're not disabled, we're actually super-special saviors), the main evidence he uses for this argument are hackneyed religious appropriations, primarily, though not exclusively, from Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and "Native American Shamanism".
This book is shamefully absurd, and I'm embarrassed on behalf of the Mad movement.
I looked up the press, and they also publish books about curing chronic illnesses with antioxidants, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
September 22, 2020
I liked this book. Farber is a bit out there at times, and could have covered as much in about 100 less pages, but most of his main ideas are solid.
May 28, 2020
Brilliant. An area of psychology that has not been studied nearly enough. For psychological disorders to improve people need to feel useful and gifted. This take on schizophrenia as a look into the unknown of science and spirituality is a great perspective to take into treating the mentally ill. Great in depth perspectives of patients.
July 5, 2022
Some good history and interviews in here. But he overstates the case with his wishes for messianic leadership from the mad community. I had to skip his conclusion and just enjoy the history that he illuminates.
September 17, 2020
Some interesting ideas to explore and expand on. However, overall it is overly romantic and naive, based on narrowly selected anecdotal evidence.
July 9, 2014
A fascinating read about what is called 'mental health' and the questionable industry that has grown up around this. It's no secret that 'Big Pharma', the multi-billion dollar industry continues to make immense profits from the illness in people. The prevarications continue down the chain from the over paid psychiatrist to the under-paid and overworked social workers. The DSM V, best used as a door-stop (in my opinion) continues the rampant abuse contained in a broken system. The drugging and restraining of ill people goes on unabated.
November 7, 2013
I'm interviewed in this book--ergo, it is awesome.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews