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Practicing creative maladjustment: the Mental Health Political Action Group

Resource type
Thesis type
(Thesis) M.A.
Date created
2011-08-11
Authors/Contributors
Abstract
This dissertation chronicles the rise and fall of the Mental Health Political Action Group (MHPAG), a Vancouver area radical psychiatric consumer/survivor collective active from 2007 to 2009. The objectives are threefold: 1) to document the experiences of a courageous group of grassroots activists involved in mental health rights advocacy, 2) to recount their achievements and frustrations, and 3) to present these findings in a way useful not only to the academy but to activist communities as well. Through a combination of participant observation and autoethnography, an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of non-hierarchical organization and peer-support mechanisms is applied through the lens of critical theory. The main finding is that, despite challenges and resistances from authorities and mainstream organizations, non-hierarchical activism, as practiced by the MHPAG, provides a space for anti-capitalist social relationships and a freedom for peer support under which many participants flourished.
Document
Identifier
etd6778
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author.
Permissions
The author granted permission for the file to be printed and for the text to be copied and pasted.
Scholarly level
Supervisor or Senior Supervisor
Thesis advisor (ths): Menzies, Robert
Member of collection
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etd6778_SVogt.pdf 7.15 MB

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