Mad conventions: Political will, (re)inventing agency, and the question of therapeutic self-empowerment; or the conventions of (in)sanity when (in)sanity convenes

My project is an inquiry into the pragmatic aspects of efficacious and sustainable political agency in the realm of what I see as an already existing discourse that I will call "Mad Studies," or "Critical Madness Theory." My working hypothesis in this dissertation is that activism works best when it is an ongoing process rather than stagnating within a series of rules and dogmas. While evoking the Logos, in Aristotle's sense of the term (the Word, reason, the plan) can be useful at times, activism works best when it is a supple machine reinvented, reworked, and reprogrammed as needed, while being predominantly concerned with the immediate and long-lasting effects of the group. Intentions are the starting point of actions and need not be differentiated in the hope of discussing "the good."...