Queer and Trans Madness: Struggles for Social Justice

by Merrick Pilling

This book is the first comprehensive application of Mad Studies to LGBTQ experiences of mental distress. Based on empirical data from two qualitative research studies, this book advances a broad critique of the biomedical model of mental illness as it pertains to LGBTQ people, arguing that Mad Studies is especially amenable to making sense of queer and trans experiences of distress. This book urges those invested in social justice for LGBTQ people to interrogate the biomedical model of mental illness beyond the diagnoses that specifically target gender and sexual dissidence. Using an intersectional analysis, this book critically examines what constitutes mental health treatment and the impacts of medical strategies on mad queer and trans people. It explores the emancipatory promise of queer and trans madness, advocating for more resources to respond to crisis and distress in ways that are non-coercive, non-carceral, and honour autonomy as well as interdependence within LGBTQ communities.

Genres: Disability, Transgender, Philosophy

228 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022