Psychiatric survivors movement

The Psychiatric survivors movement is a loose coalition of people who, united in the belief that they have been harmed or betrayed by psychiatry, advocate in favor of mental health treatment alternatives for those diagnosed with (or simply accused of being afflicted by) mental illnesses. It is also called the consumer survivors movement.

Rejection of psychiatric doctrine and/or practices
According to members of the Psychiatric Survivors Movement, some people considered mentally ill, and subsequently mistreated by certain psychiatrists or by psychiatric doctrine in general, do not benefit from the services offered or forced upon them. According to the movement, many respond with outrage to a system which judges them to be mentally ill, because they consider there to be a value bias within psychiatry that undermines the judgment of psychiatrists, pharmaceutical companies, and the legal oversight of the mental health system. According to the movement, many also view interventions made in the name of help to be coercive and inherently violent in nature.

Origins
The psychiatric survivors movement grew out of these experiences, though there are perhaps earlier inspirations for the movement (e.g., anti-psychiatry and the opposition of surrealism to psychiatry). According to the movement, other influences include the civil rights movement.

History of movement
The beginning of a formal movement is often attributed to Howard Geld, or Howie the Harp, and the formation of the Insane Liberation Front in Portland, Oregon, in 1969. Many other local initiatives followed, many of them with Howie's direct participation, and most owing to his articulation of peer alternatives to traditional treatment methods, and demonstrated success in funding and operating peer-operated service centers. A coalition of such programs meets annually at the Alternatives conference.

MindFreedom International and the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry have also played important roles in the psychiatric survivors movement.

Aims
People with mental illnesses often "suffer from widespread systemic discrimination and are consistently denied the rights and services to which they are entitled". One of the goals of the psychiatric survivors movement is to have mental illnesses protected by Anti-discrimination laws, thus affording them the same legal protection as those of varying genders, age, race, religion etc. Additionally, it is well recognised that those with mental disorders have generally higher rates of unemployment, and lower occupational attainment; for example, none of the executives in the Fortune 500 companies have diagnosed mental disorders. Proponents of affirmative action believe that, as with other minority groups, there should be equal representation of those with mental illnesses in all occupations.