Collectives of « experts by experience » :
How do they alter the practices of mental health professionals?

During our second seminar we will be attempting to articulate the collective experimentation carried out by individuals living with the singular experience of voice hearing with that of healthcare professionals who have pursued the approach begun in the 1970s under the name of Psychiatric Democracy.

On the one hand, with the French Voice Hearers Network (REV) and the ICARUS project, we have a logic of emancipation characterised by refusal of psychiatric diagnosis, by a new mode of existence and experience, and by mutual support among peers. On the other hand, a will to include within the community the specificity of mental suffering. How can we overcome the antagonism between the institution and emancipatory logics?  Are there potential alliances?

With the participation of Yann Derobet, a founding member of REV, P’itcarus of the ICARUS project, Charles Burquel (psychiatrist) and Mounia Ahammad (nurse), who have both led various institutional experiments in Brussels (L’Autre lieu, Pianocktel…).

Free Entrance, booking required
reservation@leslaboratoires.org or 01 53 56 15 90

photo : Xavier Ribas, Diumenge / Barcelona Picture 19, 1997