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Psychiatric Survivor Movement History

The current era of psychiatric survivor and ally activism is generally considered to have begun in about 1970.

Principles adopted by 1982 gathering of psychiatric survivors.

Each year for many years in the 1970's and 1980's, there was an annual gathering of psychiatric survivors, usually on a different college campus in the US or Canada. It became known as the "International Conference on Human Rights and Against Psychiatric Association." At the 1982 gathering in Toronto, participants agreed to these principles.

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Logo for Madness Network News

Logo for Madness Network News

Madness Network News, out of the Bay Area of California, helped network thousands of psychiatric survivors and allies internatioanlly. Their logo was a woman breaking free from a strait jacket.

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Hearing Voices: Resistance Among Psychiatric Survivors and Consumers

Maria Duerr presented this thesis about the history of the psychiatric survivor movement for her Masters Degree in Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in June 1996. (This PDF is 141 pages.)

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Dorothy Dundas

While institutionalized for three years as an adolescent in the 1960's, MindFreedom member Dorothy Washburn Dundas was labeled a "schizophrenic" and forced to undergo 40 combined insulin coma-electroshock "treatments." Dorothy says, "I experienced and witnessed many atrocities. I believe that luck, determination, and my own anger and one compassionate advocate were my best friends on the road to my ultimate survival and freedom." Through a number of op-ed pieces, she has voiced her opposition to abusive psychiatric practices. Her poster, "Behind Locked Doors," which she created from her hospital records, is used in training programs. Dorothy lives in the Boston area where she has raised her four wonderful children. She founded and is the sole driver in her "safe, friendly and reliable" car service called The Crystal Lake Express.

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