In 2011, NCIL adopted a resolution supporting Mad Pride Day. Mad Pride celebrates the creativity and resiliency of the human spirit and also focuses attention on the human rights and spectacular culture of people considered very different by our society. Mad Pride celebrations have grown directly out of a historic but little-known international social change movement led by psychiatric survivors and mental health consumers that began in about 1970 – around the same time as the IL movement. Mad Pride is open to everyone, whether or not you have personally been labeled by the psychiatric system, since Mad Pride is really about Human Pride.
Inspired by a concept introduced by Dr. Martin Luther King, JR, Mad Pride has expanded into Creative Maladjustment Week which will be observed this year July 7-14. Creative maladjustment is a natural human response to oppression, an organic and highly adaptable way to oppose injustice. Each day of Creative maladjustment Week focuses on a theme: creativity, action and movement; laughter; kindness; self and community care; legacy of lunacy and pride. For more information about Creative Maladjustment Week, please visit www.cmweek.org.
