Call Me Crazy: Stories from the Mad Movement [Paperback]

Irit Shimrat (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As a young woman, Irit Shimrat went crazy and spent two years locked up in psych wards. She escaped to find support, respect, and political awareness in the Mad Movement and among queer people. This book is a personal record of her crazy episodes, her recovery, and her work as editor of the Canadian journal Phoenix Rising: The Voice of the Psychiatrized and as coordinator of the Ontario-based Psychiatric Survivors Alliance whose insistence on drug-free treatment and peer counseling has changed North American attitudes toward mental illness. Call Me Crazy also includes lengthy interviews with other leaders of this movement. Shimrat's critical analysis of society's condemnation of other-minded people and her suggestions for recreating systems of health, support, and community are inspired.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Pr Gang Pub (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0889740704
• ISBN-13: 978-0889740709
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,026,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for psychiatric consumers, September 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Call Me Crazy: Stories from the Mad Movement (Paperback)

One of the hardest things about being given a DSM diagnosis is the act of breaking free from the stigma of such a label. Unfortunately, most psychiatric professionals are more concerned about creating a growth industry than in helping their patients to heal from their psychic wounds.

Shimrat allows those who have been denied a voice the room to express what really works for them regarding personal recovery. The key component would have to be empowerment, as the psychiatric industry tends to demoralize and disempower those whom they claim to help. Considering the fact that, at one time, gayness was considered a DSM catagory of mental illness, it stands to reason that such diagnoses are quite arbitrary and political in nature.

Empowerment is a political movement to liberate those who have been called crazy by their caregivers who lack the insight to see mental health consumers as human beings worthy of dignity. That is the focus of this book, and for that reason I highly recommend it.