Last September, along with our friends and supporters in the Critical Psychiatry and Hearing Voices Networks, the Asylum Collective held a conference at Manchester Metropolitan University to explore alternatives to the pathological labels of ‘mental illness’. This issue of the magazine includes some of the presentations from this event, as well as the usual sections of creative writing, poetry and reviews. Read more
After three editions devoted to one or another specific issue, this one covers a variety of topics. We are pleased to say that the bulk of it consists of the considered views of various service users or ex-users. (Or ‘survivors’ – there still doesn’t seem to be an agreed word to replace ‘patient’…) And you will see that we now introduce a regular section for Poetry and Creative Writing, co-edited by Clare Shaw and Phil Thomas. If you have any ideas for this, please contact either of them (see contact list on p.2). Read more
Welcome to this themed edition of Asylum magazine. The Spiritual Crisis Network (SCN) is delighted to present it, and we hope to be able to introduce the concept of spiritual crisis and to give an idea of who we are and what we do. The first article, by our founder, Catherine Lucas, explains in more detail who we are. Read more
It is one hundred years since an eminent psychiatrist published a book which announced an alarming kind of mental disorder – SCHIZOPHRENIA. This idea – the ‘split mind’ – brilliantly evoked the enigma of all those frightful psychoses which lack any apparent organic cause yet seem suddenly to afflict people in the prime of life. Read more
Welcome to the Mad Pride edition. This is organised by the Mad Hatters of Bath but we had contributions from nutters all over the country, and beyond. When we started organising this edition we didn’t know what material we would get. We just asked people to write about what Mad Pride means to them. Read more
Readers may know that in 2008, due to the sudden death of its Editor, Asylum magazine went into crisis and stopped publication. The re-launch was last March. However, people still kept sending in material and so this issue is made up of submissions from the last few years. Readers have sent in lots of great stuff – thanks very much for that. We always welcome contributions. Read more
