Did you know that YOU are a leader in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s International Association for the Advancement of the Creatively Maladjusted [IAACM]? With every display of mad pride in yourself and your humanity, every non-violent action you take to express yourself and BE yourself, you make King’s dream a reality.

How can you exercise your leadership in the IAACM?

1. Follow Martin Luther King, Jr.’s guidelines for positive creative maladjustment.

The word “maladjustment” may have some negative connotations. It’s even been said that Adam Lanza was “maladjusted.”

Clearly this is not what King – a lifelong advocate for nonviolence – had in mind. In fact, he placed a strong emphasis on disciplined nonconformity, which comes from a loving place:

Nonconformity in itself, however, may not necessarily be good and may at times possess neither transforming nor redemptive power. Nonconformity per se contains no saving value, and may represent in some circumstances little more than a form of exhibitionism… Nonconformity is creative when it is controlled and directed by a transformed life and is constructive when it embraces a new mental outlook…

Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Strength to Love — Chapter 2: Transformed nonconformist (1963)

2. Join us for the inaugural CREATIVE MALADJUSTMENT WEEK, July 6 – July 13

A special time to honor the madly maladjusted among us, the celebration in July will include:

• themes for each day of the week as we celebrate mad pride and creative maladjustment across the US and around the world with parades, street theater, activism, and more!
• MindFreedom Creative Maladjustment Awards honoring dedicated activists and creatively maladjusted individuals

… and much more! (We’d love to hear YOUR ideas for ways to celebrate Creative Maladjustment Week. Email us at office@mindfreedom.org and let us know what you have in mind).

(Click here to download Amy’s amazing artwork; feel free to share widely with friends!)

3. Express your creative maladjustment LOUD and PROUD the whole year round!

May we all live each and every day in creative maladjustment!

As King once said:

This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists… The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority… Human salvation lies in the hands of the creative maladjusted.

– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Strength to Love — Chapter 2: Transformed nonconformist (1963)

Be sure to share with us what is going on in your community to celebrate Creative Maladjustment Week: email Celia: celia@mindfreedom.org.

Thanks!