Announcing the ISEPP conference in California, November 13-November 15. Whatever its limitations--and as is generally the case with such conferences, I would have liked to see more feminists and activists on the roster--this conference will be well worth attending. It has a number of vintage speakers who have long contributed to the critique of psychiatry. For example, the first keynote and the opening welcome to the conference will be delivered by David Cohen, who himself needs no introduction. David has co-authored a large variety of leading books in the area, some with Breggin on the drugs, another with Kirk and Kutchins on the DSM. And then there is the wonderful researcher and ally John Read from Liverpool, who will be speaking about resistance to the paradigm shift, also, as as his norm, on evidence-based research. Read is always on top of his game and many of us have been enormously grateful to him throughout the years for the meticulous care with which he ferrets out the errors and the hoodwinking which is at the core of psychiatric research. People will probably best know him best for the exemplary work that he has done critiquing the electroshock literature. Whitaker will be speaking on "The Guild Interest in the American Psychiatric Association", and one can always depend on him to slip in some new tidbits (incidentally, if you have not already done so, check out his multifaceted website Mad in America). Also there will be two presentations that are coming pointedly from an antipsychiatry and a left wing perspective, in the second case, a decidedly anarchist and feminist one. One is by Laura Delano, called "Reclaiming Humanity: Building a Post-Psychiatry World through Inner-Exploration, Mutual Support and Community Building". Laura is of the few mad activists that is a hundred per cent antipsychiatry--with no exceptions made. And her speech will be personal, political, and visionary. While I will not be there in person, for as many people know, my health does not permit, the other is mine. I am also one of the keynotes, and I have made a half hour video of a distinctly anarchist/feminist bent, which will debut at this conference. It is called, "Grounded Eutopianism"--Piece/Peacing Our Way Together: Toward a World with Commons and Without Psychiatry". This will be the first time that I am presenting on my vision for the future, and it will give people a glimpse into some of the critical new directions that will emerge in my magnum opus "Psychiatry and the Business of Madness" (still in process), for it is based on the final chapter of this book. Want to find out why I spell "utopia" the way I do--as in "eutopia"? All will be revealed in the video. For more details on the keynotes and on the conference itself, see
www.psychintegrity.org/2014_conference_info.php
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