The Personal is Political
Jacqui Dillon, Hearing Voices Network, UK
The concept of the ‘personal is political’ developed out of the women’s liberation movement in the 1960's, establishing a clear link between our lived experience and the broader political and social setting in which we exist. This concept is also highly relevant to contemporary attitudes and responses to mental health issues and notions of sanity and madness. The traditional bio-medical approach deems experiences like hearing voices as symptoms of an illness best suppressed with medication. However, there is a growing body of evidence which views hearing voices as a meaningful response to disturbing and overwhelming experiences that can be understood and integrated into a person’s life. By sharing personal experiences of madness and recovery, these issues are explored so that madness is understood as a sane response to surviving in a crazy world. Consequently, advocating and campaigning for the rights of those labeled as mentally ill has now become the last great civil rights movement.