About Archives

Photo from 1976 “Sleep-In at Governor Brown’s Office”
The person on the left of the photo is Jenny Miller holding the sign that reads “Mad Women Fight Back.”
The person on the right of the photo is Saralinda Grimes holding the sign that reads “Bet Your Ass We’re Paranoid.”

Our History

In November 1971 Jennifer Gleissner and Tullia Tesauro met each other as patients at Agnews State Hospital. Together they founded the anti-psychiatry journal Madness Network News in 1972. The journal was a central network for the psychiatric survivor movement from 1976 to its demise in 1986, the journal was written, edited, and produced entirely by psychiatric survivors. In addition to its role in inspiring ex-psychiatric inmates to take political action, it also served as a place where people could truthfully write about their experiences as mad people and survivors of psychiatric oppression.  

Preserving Our History

We believe that preserving our history is integral to the future of our movements. We have made a sincere effort to preserve the original issues of MNN and make them as accessible as possible for public use. It is our priority to preserve and continue the work of MNN as an uncompromising psychiatric survivor and madness-based movement entity. In our efforts to make the original issues as accessible as possible, we are featuring the original issues as they were published in PDF format. We are also transcribing all the original issues as an accessible alternative to the original issues. Please keep in mind while reading the archives that our movement has evolved in terms of language and understanding. These pieces will speak the truth to many of the atrocities perpetrated by psychiatry and the broader mental health system.


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