Just mad about being bonkers

There's a bold new civil rights movement gathering strength in the West.

There8217;s a bold new civil rights movement gathering strength in the West. People with mental health disorders are fighting back for respect from and acceptance in society, and their key weapon is the word that has been hurled at them for centuries as an insult and an expression of contempt: 8216;mad8217;. Just as 8216;black8217; was turned beautiful in the 1960s, just as gay people turned the slur 8216;queer8217; into a badge of pride, Mad Pride activists want to bring dignity and honour to their three-letter generalised descriptor. And to words like 8216;bonkers8217;, 8216;wacko8217;, 8216;bananas8217;, 8216;lunatic8217;, and every other word that has been used through history to poke fun at them, to sneer at them. The largest annual Mad Pride festival in Britain is called Bonkersfest.

They are no longer interested in being described by medical terms such as 8216;bipolar disorder8217; and 8216;schizophrenia8217;. In an article in The Guardian, one of the organisers of Bonkersfest tells the writer: 8220;The problem with medical terms is that they are terribly misunderstood. They promote a culture of fear, and try to fit your whole being into a label and a set of symptoms. 8216;Bonkers8217; is not insulting; it8217;s broad and lighthearted. We chose it as a name because it is both sexual and funny and fits with the celebratory mood of the festival.8221; Mad Pride gatherings and festivals are now held regularly in at least seven countries, including the United States and South Africa.

Mad Pride people counsel one another, act as support groups and have fun together. They are pressure groups on their governments and on pharmaceutical companies manufacturing controversial psychotropic drugs; they are increasingly questioning the way doctors treat mental health disorders. And many of them are highly-educated and successful professionals. Liz Spikol, one of the leading voices, is a senior contributing editor at Philadelphia Weekly and an award-winning columnist. Elyn Saks is a law professor and associate dean at the University of Southern California. Indeed, one of the principal points that the activists are trying to make to the world is that people with these disabilities can lead productive lives. They do not want to hide their specialness, or be defensive about it.

Wrote the late Pete Shaughnessy, one of the founders of the movement: 8220;I see life as one big swimming pool. Some of us are thrust in the deep end and we manage to survive. We make our way down to the shallow end, where it8217;s easy, boring. The people there are scared of the deep end, scared of the unknown, so they shun people like me and call me MAD. Madness is a natural reaction.8221;

Language, as we all know, is a powerful tool for social change. When a 8216;Red Indian8217; becomes a Native American, the world, in a way, gives him his rightful and respectworthy place in American society, and recognises his history and all the injustices done to him over five hundred years. Yet, it can be taken too far. Bending over backwards by calling a short man 8216;vertically challenged8217; is just plain stupid. It reduces it all to a joke and makes him even more conscious of his height. I am quite happy describing myself as a balding man, and would think that anyone who called me 8216;follically challenged8217; 8212; or whatever the 8216;politically correct8217; term is 8212; is an idiot. It8217;s neither my fault nor his that I have lost nearly all my hair, so why is he feeling guilty about it? A spastic person suffers from spasticity; it is only when we use 8216;spastic8217; to describe someone who does not have the condition, but because we think he is a fool, that we insult all spastic persons, and do not deserve to move around in civilised society.

Mad Pride has turned political correctness upside down. By embracing every insult used at them, they are robbing the words of their stigma. If you turn my insult into an expression of self-esteem, you are throwing the ball right back in my court, and I am first taken aback, then puzzled, and then realise that I have no power to insult you. And finally, nor do I have any right, I never had any. When the words are destigmatised, society will perforce have to accept these people as equal members, just a bit different from the 8216;average bloke8217;. But then, all of us 8216;average blokes8217; are different from one another, and all of us get along with one another most of the time, don8217;t we? Even if I call you 8216;just another average bloke, nothing else8217;.

Sandipan Deb, former editor of The Financial Express, heads the RPG Group8217;s forthcoming magazine venture.