Mad Poetry
Poetry cannot be silenced by psychiatric oppression. Here are some examples. Also, MindFreedom Journal has usually had a column of excerpts of Mad Poetry, edited by Bonnie Schell; see info about the journal elsewhere on this web site. You may submit poetry to that column at poetry(at)mindfreedom(dot)org. Please note that by submitting your poem you agree to MindFreedom publishing the whole poem, or excerpts of it. The MindFreedom poetry column is meant to give glimpses of the wonderful poetry out there, and so portions of poems are often used to illustrate this.
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Tom Greening poetry to change the mental health system - Tom Greening has written many humorous poems challenging the current mental health system, and what is called ‘normal,’ which he decidedly is not.
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Mad Poet - One of the folks who was involved in the planning meetings for the coalition that became MindFreedom International told us about this web site by a Mad Poet. Thanks!
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“The Killing of Susan Kelly” by Dorothy Washburn Dundas - While institutionalized for three years as an adolescent in the early 1960s, Dorothy was labeled a “schizophrenic” and forced to undergo 40 combined insulin coma-electroshock “treatments.” She experienced and witnessed many atrocities and believes that luck, determination, her own anger, and one compassionate advocate were here best friends on the road to her survival. Dorothy’s story, “The Shocking Truth,” appears in ‘Beyond Bedlam,’ and her writings on abusive psychiatric practices have been published in The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Detroit Free Press, and The Miami Herald.
- Mad poems by Liz Purcell
- Liz Purcell is a freelance writer, psychiatric survivor, and longtime sober alcoholic. She is also the author of Seeds of Sobriety: Practical Daily Readings for Alcoholics and Addicts (Outskirts Press, 2006).
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