Within all the various identity-related social justice movements representing marginalized and oppressed populations, the “Mad activism” movement represents an interesting anomaly on the grounds that hardly anyone knows it exists. In his 2019 book, Madness and the Demand for Recognition, Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed emerged as one of the only philosophers who has engaged closely with Mad activism and the politics of madness more generally. His conversation with Helen Spandler critically engages with our serious cultural impoverishment when it comes to mental health; with philosophy's history of excluding madness; with the politics of recognition; with the role of reconciliation in mental health services; and much more.

MOHAMMED ABOUELLEIL RASHED is a visiting lecturer in the department of philosophy at King's College, London, as well as an associate specialist in community psychiatry at Camden and Northwest London NHS Foundation Trust. His main research is in philosophy of psychiatry where he has examined a number of topics including the boundaries of illness, definitions of concepts of mental disorder and distress, and the diagnostic process in psychiatry.

HELEN SPANDLER is Professor of Mental Health Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. Her research expertise is in critical approaches to mental health, including the theory, practice, policy, history and politics of mental healthcare. She is also the managing editor of Asylum: The Magazine for Democratic Psychiatry.

Helen Spandler (HS): Where did your involvement in Mad Pride and Mad politics come from? It is certainly not a common thing for psychiatrists, or indeed philosophers, to get their hands dirty with the Mad movement and Mad activism. I am interested in why it influenced you so much and has had such a profound influence on your work.

Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed (MAR): When I was beginning to engage with problems in the philosophy of psychiatry, one of the first topics that I came across is the issue of the definition of mental disorder. If there is a defining topic for that field of study, that would be it. I was fascinated by the fact that culture was an exclusionary criterion from being considered to have a mental disorder.