ABSTRACT
Based on the idea that the political is personal, the narrative of this chapter traces the journey of the author from a ‘survivor’ of psychiatry to a person with a psychosocial disability. The chapter weaves in the experiences of living in a post-colonial country context, observations regarding being ‘mad’ and seeking ‘mad’ friends and peers, and the beginnings of a social history of resistance to psychiatry in India. Finally, arguing that shifts in identity is as much a matter of political opportunity as a personal choice, this chapter focuses on the advent of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its influence on identity questions. The author throws open the possibility of decolonizing mental health using CRPD as a weapon, thereby, subsuming the question of identity to the question of political advantage.
