About

Table of Contents

About

The Centre for Mad Culture UK provides a hub of information, creative engagement and community building for people with lived experience of madness and/or psychiatric services, as well as their family, friends and allies. Madfolk may include those who identify as mad, mentally ill, survivors of psychiatry, mental health service users, patients and/or neurodivergent. Madness is commonly perceived as distressing, fearful and contentious. CMC UK aims to create a subversive discourse that challenges sanism and psychophobia, encourages mad pride and transforms madness into a source of community, activism and solidarity. about our vision We envision the mad voice to be welcomed and cherished. In this vision:

the mainstream biomedical and deficit models of mental health make way for a new paradigm: madness as a valuable aspect of human culture and intersectional identity, bringing gifts of knowledge and insight to the greater society;
community responds to madness with justice, tolerance, kindness, recognition of human dignity and learning from what is offered.

History

Our story began when we met as students of the MSc Mad Studies course at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. A group of mad scholars and mental health activists, we were inspired by what we were learning and so we started running meetup groups in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

We were fortunate to receive grants from the Edge Fund which allowed us to develop a website, grow our membership and pursue mad projects whilst completing coursework at QMU.

In this way we formed the Mad Insight Collective, our springboard for events, presentations, meetups, outings and just general mad mayhem.

In spring 2025, Julia had the great fortune to connect with Matt Bodett, the founder of the Center for Mad Culture which is based in Chicago, USA. Matt gave her wonderful advice and encouragement, and from this nudge of mad solidarity Julia set up a community interest company: the Centre for Mad Culture UK! We are not officially affiliated with CMC in Chicago but we are friends and allies.

Formally launched in October 2025, the Centre for Mad Culture UK aims to be a vibrant hub of information, activities and community for madfolk and their friends, families and allies. Together we celebrate the mad voice and invoke change in the way that society responds to it.

From QMU students to the Mad Insight Collective to the Centre for Mad Culture UK… for every step along the way we hope to bring real systemic change to how madness is received. We cherish the mad experience and we celebrate the mad voice.

Activism

The Centre for Mad Culture UK supports mad activism – which we define as actions which address and critique the mainstream discourse about mental health and psychiatric treatment. As mad activists, we hope to inspire dialogue and we invite people to look beyond the status quo.

The mad movement is diverse and made up of individuals who hold many different types of opinions and take many different viewpoints. Some of us are anti-psychiatry, others want reform that works within the present mental health system; some of us are anti-medication, others take and appreciate prescription drugs; some of us seek the abolition of incarceration, others find refuge in hospital. What we hold in common is a desire for our mad knowledge and experience to be respected and valued, and for our expertise to be counted in the services designed to help us. There is a saying in the movement which we uphold: nothing about us without us.

We observe Mad Pride month in July, with Mad Pride Day traditionally held on 14 July.