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4/ Editorial introductions
Chapter 6 - The
Ethics of Anti-Psychiatry by Joe
Berke
There is, of course, a context to the
principles outlined in the previous chapter. For a century now within Western,
industrialised society, there have been voices insisting that experience labelled
'mad' is meaningful, and breakdown of an individual's normal social functioning
may better be seen as a breakthrough. In chapter six Joe Berke extends the critique
of professional status and conventional psychiatric wisdom. He concentrates here
on the anti-spiritual implications of traditional approaches, and he considers
alternatives. He develops the theme from the previous chapter that there is a
way of working which validates clients' experience rather than turning it into
an 'illness'. Joe discusses the context in which it becomes possible to work in
this way, referring to the experience of other cultures where the religious and
healing potential of dream states is validated. Linking this with mystical experience,
Joe elaborates, this being the main focus of his chapter, his own story of setting
up a community for those in crisis where people have not had to go mad to be there.
