It's maddening: re-conceptualizing embodiments of mental and physical distress

There are ongoing tensions in activist and community groups regarding the suitability of medication for mental distress. These tensions are based on assumptions of separate-but-connected notions of body and mind. Antipsychiatry perspectives resist medicinal interventions only for disablements commonly thought of as ‘psychological’. Antipsychiatry activists who claim psychopharmaceutic interventions are scientifically unsubstantiated potentially undermine service user knowledges that draw on a breadth of experiential impacts, both of medication’s harm and effectiveness. Furthermore, within a context of neoliberalism it is necessary to remain critical of how demedicalization movements can be coopted by austerity agendas to reduce public spending on healthcare. The article goes beyond body versus mind debates to critically engage with the ethics of embodiment and towards envisioning Mad epistemic justice. Mad epistemic justice would require a repositioning of power structures in healthcare by fundamentally centering service users’ needs and expertise.