The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

The New Epilogue to Our Classic Reader - Navigating the Space Between brilliance and Madness
You can order the new book here So much has changed in the nine years since we originally published this book that we both wonder sometimes if our lives are a movie or a dream. The Icarus Project is no longer fueled by the obsessive energy of two people working at a frenzied pace and holding it all together with lithium and duct tape. These days the project is supported by a network of madfolks and allies all over the world. read more (Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness)
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - March 15, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Source Type: blogs

Driving Somewhere Beautiful
In 1973 the academic journal Science published an article called On Being Sane in Insane Places. It documented the findings of an experiment by psychologist David Rosenhan designed to test the validity of psychiatric diagnosis. The first part of Rosenhan’s study involved eight ‘sane’ people feigning auditory hallucinations to see if they could get committed into psychiatric institutions. What is interesting about the experiment is not the ease with which the participants successfully feigned mental illness, but the difficulty they had, once inside the system, of proving themselves sane. Although none of the participa...
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - February 11, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Tags: Articles Source Type: blogs

A Reflection on Mothers, Children, and Mental Illness
I woke up this morning and there it was again, I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother. This essay is all over the internet, written by a woman who is using her personal story about experiences with her “mentally ill” son, whom she is “terrified of,” to appeal for more dialogue on the issue of mental health. As I write this, her son’s picture has been viewed by over a million people. They have read her accounts of what may be some of these young man’s most painful childhood memories. read more (Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness)
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - December 19, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Tags: Articles Source Type: blogs

Visionary Alternatives to the DSM
This is a call for submissions to a zine I am compiling, which will include self-portraits and descriptions of one’s own madness/mental health issues as a DSM alternative. The idea for my zine is that labels like Bipolar I, Schizophrenia, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder are dehumanizing and cannot capture how beautiful and diverse and complex madness is. I want to create a translator from DSM to mad pride- sort of like an alternative guidebook for understanding madness rather than the DSM. read more (Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between ...
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - December 17, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: scatter Tags: Community Source Type: blogs

suicidal ideation 2.0, queer community leadership, and staying alive anyway
One of my friends said, what should we do? Should we have regular red flag check ins with each other, the way we do about relationships? Should I go up to you and ask, Have you been thinking about killing yourself lately? And I thought, if anyone came at me saying, HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT KILLING YOURSELF LATELY?, I'd automatically lie and say hell no. The way I have to every single doctor, social worker and most therapists in my life.  I don't want anything I can prevent on my permanent record, and I definitely don't want Danger to Self or Others. I've been fighting this my whole life, and I've seen the oppression and...
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - December 17, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Tags: Community Source Type: blogs

Madness Radio Kickstarter Campaign -- SUCCESSFUL!
UPDATE: On January 2 2013 Madness Radio reached its Kickstarter goal -- we raised $23,796 for new shows in 2013 and a Madness Radio book! 193 people donated -- including many people who are part of The Icarus Project community. This has been an incredible showing of community mobilization for Madness Radio's first fundraising effort ever. THANKS to everyone who contributed, shared on Facebook and around the internet, and spread the word to make the campaign a success!  If you haven't heard Madness Radio listen online to one of more than 100 shows here, and join the Madness Radio Facebook for update...
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - December 4, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Tags: community events icarus organizational icarus press local groups popular education materials Source Type: blogs

New German Translations of Icarus Project Writings!
In November of 2012 the AKPsychiatriekritik [freakoutcrazy.com] will publish a German version of the Hurting Yourself Zine and an Zine with mixed writings from different Icarus Project publications combined with autobiographical texts of members and friends of the AKPsychiatriekritik about experiences with crisis and psychiatry.  read more (Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness)
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - November 2, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: scatter Tags: Community Source Type: blogs

On 10 Years of The Icarus Project
On a hot September day Sascha and I traveled back to something both mythical and real. I took him to visit a giant old oak tree with articulate arms, poised in mid-dance under an even more giant sky. I had painted this tree years ago for an Icarus publication; it's the final image in a graphic sequence where a flock of birds lifts off the telephone wires, disappear as stars, and land back in the branches of this particular oak tree. The upper right panel of the graphic states in big capital letters “You Are Not Alone.” As we sat on the bench underneath the tree plotting out potential goals for the next 10 years of Icar...
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - October 23, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: jacks_ashley Tags: 10thanniversary Source Type: blogs

Coming Off Medications Guide - In Bosnian/Croatian!
The Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs was recently translated in Bosnian! Sarajevo's Metanoia group brings together visionary professionals, psychology students, and people diagnosed with extreme states to change mental health treatments and community response. Icarista Will Hall recently visited to support their work. You can download the new guide here Get in touch with the group in Sarajevo on facebook here Update:Croatia's activist and support group Ludruga just published a Croatian version. You can download it here; printer version is here.  :  read more (Source: The Icarus Project - Navig...
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - October 14, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Tags: advocacy, rights & politics alternative treatments coming off meds/withdrawal icarus downloads icarus organizational local groups news popular education materials Source Type: blogs

Coming Off Medications Guide - In Bosnian!
The Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs was recently translated in Bosnian! Sarajevo's Metanoia group brings together visionary professionals, psychology students, and people diagnosed with extreme states to change mental health treatments and community response. Icarista Will Hall recently visited to support their work. You can download the new guide here Get in touch with the group in Sarajevo on facebook here (Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness)
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - October 14, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Tags: advocacy, rights & politics alternative treatments coming off meds/withdrawal icarus downloads icarus organizational local groups news popular education materials Source Type: blogs

10 Years of The Icarus Project: Reflections & The Second Generation of Icaristas
The Icarus Project is celebrating their 10 year anniversary. With this milestone comes the great realization that we, the groups that have come since, are the second generation of Icaristas. We have taken the foundation that Sascha and Jacks have laid and we have run with it. And run with it far we have! read more (Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness)
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - October 13, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: scatter Tags: 10thanniversary Source Type: blogs

Balancing Acts: Building Accountable Communities of Care
Maryse writes about radical mental health, healing justice, Icarus history, OWS organizing, peer support, and holding each other and our movements accountable with love. --   There is a reckoning period, I think, early on in the political life of most organizers. It's a moment when we realize the enormity of the harm done, the systems that work to continue this harm, and the endless struggle required to uproot this cycle of oppression and violence. That realization hits us hard and heavy. For me, for years, I walked around with a weight, a hopelessness where my only defense was to keep fighting back. Where the way me ...
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - October 3, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: silverelf Tags: 10thanniversary Source Type: blogs

Modern Times Art Opening
Photos from the 10th Anniversary art show opening at Modern Times are now online. Check em out. http://www.flickr.com/photos/87521564@N08/sets/72157631584756479/   read more (Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness)
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - September 20, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Source Type: blogs