by David Oaks, director of MindFreedom International • MindFreedom is announcing the First Annual Creative Maladjustment Week. This can help the “mad pride” campaign, and reach the general public.
Maybe you saw the announcement about Creative Maladjustment Week on MindFreedom’s home page here:
Announcing First Annual Creative Maladjustment Week – 7 July to 14 July 2013
What about Mad Pride?
We’ve had Mad Pride… Boycott Normal… Now what?
We here at MindFreedom International continue to promote MAD PRIDE events anywhere they happen.
Here in our local area in Oregon, USA, once more we will have an event celebrating psychiatric survivors — specifically on Sunday, 14 July 2013 (and 12th & 13th) at the amazing and historic Oregon Country Fair (use ‘google images’ with that phrase to see tens of thousands in the woods ‘healing normality’).
Our 2012 event at Oregon Country Fair this past July 14, 2012, involved MindFreedom giving a ‘lunacy promotion’ award to ‘the real’ Patch Adams for his psychiatric survivor leadership in Martin Luther King’s “International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.”
You can watch that video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYUkMty5S2Q
Reaching the Public in the Spirit of John McCarthy
While we will always do MAD PRIDE events, we are seeking to madly spread out, in the spirit of John McCarthy, to invite… play with… and engage the general public.
That’s why MindFreedom is launching the First Annual CREATIVE MALADJUSTMENT WEEK, from 7 July to 14 July. Our Mad Pride event will be part of that.
But we are encouraging the public to do anything peaceful they wish to participate in ‘creative maladjustment’ — for instance they can honor their friends, colleagues, family members who show a spirit of “creative maladjustment.”
I hope everyone knows that Martin Luther King said — more than a dozen times in ten years — that the world was in dire need of an “International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.” People laughed… but that’s our cue to help make his IAACM vision real.
In other words, we will continue to do our part locally… We also appreciate YOUR leadership globally — whether you knew or not! — in MLK’s IAACM!!
Support for Creative Maladjustment Week
We have Patch Adams and his community’s support. In the video above pay special attention to his friend CARL HAMMERSCHLAG, the six-foot-six psychiatrist dressed in the pink tutu. Carl is especially supportive of what he calls “the nobility of weirdness.”
We know our issue has its own unique challenges different than, say, the launch of wonderful “Gay Pride” marches back in 1970.
We in the mad movement also have an advantage: WE ARE THE 100 PERCENT. I actually think that’s what makes this one of the more challenging issues — that we are saying to the world, “Hey… we’ve had problems… and guess what, you are one of us!” For me personally, the climate crisis ends our segregation, proving that what is generally called ‘normal’ is in fact just one of the worst distresses, ever. Normal is the Big Enchilada of mental problems.
Are we ready enough — are we ‘crazy’ enough — to take on — in a peaceful loving creative way — what is called “normal”?
Ways to Help Creative Maladjustment Week
You can download a flyer announcing Creative Maladjustment Week here:
https://mindfreedom.org/campaign/iaacm/
We have just launched a brand new Facebook page on this we hope you will ‘like’ and visit and add to:
Let people know that toi stay in touch with international efforts on MAD PRIDE and IAACM we have free public email lists:
MAD PRIDE NEWS — only used occasionally to get out announcements… Let’s get this list started again…
MAD PRIDE TALK — a discussion list among those who are organizing or want to organize mad pride events in various areas of the world — which lately have been mainly Vancouver, Ireland, Oregon and of course Toronto!
And another way to help… be Creatively Maladjusted, and pledge a way you will do this from 7 to 14 July 2013!