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The annual Mad in Norway seminar was held on 2 December 2022 with over a hundred participants in attendance. This was the second year in a row that the seminar took place at Litteraturhuset in Oslo, and it has become a tradition. Following is a summary of the talks and events that took place.
The audiovisual work of Mario Norberto Fernández Damas critiques psychiatric power while recovering the voices of those who have been oppressed by placing the user in the role of protagonists of their own stories. During the following weeks, Mad in Mexico will be sharing correspondences with Mario and others who have been involved in building Mad in Mexico. Through these correspondences they will continue discussing, questioning and developing the conversation around Mario's work and the various ideas that encompass it.
A psychiatrist ushers a 22-year-old out-patient into a room for an assessment. According to his medical notes, the young man has been stabilised on the ‘antipsychotic’ olanzapine several weeks after a first episode of ‘psychosis’. After asking the patient some provocative questions, the doctor tells him that his face is like a mask and he seems unresponsive and flat. The psychiatrist goes on to confirm a prior provisional diagnosis of ‘schizophrenia’, and relates this to the young man. The doctor also decides that prescribing an ‘antidepressant’ on top of the olanzapine might h...
"I think psychologists want to believe that we are a science, we can control outcomes, and if people would just listen to our recommendations that they’d feel happier and feel better. I’ve at times seen a total disregard for systemic influences and things way beyond our control and the human experience itself."
The majority of clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of antipsychotics, but also of antidepressants, are not reliable as the trial design is flawed and exposes some individuals to reactions of akathisia, a very disabling condition.