ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I explore participants’ responses to the policing of distress and then consider the other ways they believe that various institutions related to music teaching and learning surveil and regulate experiences of Madness and distress. Following participants, I take an abolitionist stand on policing of both kinds—literal policing and the surveillance and regulation of Madness and distress via widespread policies and practices. Police are often first responders to calls about a person experiencing emotional distress. A discussion of policing thus becomes important to this project. Abolitionists call for the abolition of police in ways that include the divesting of funds toward social services. Like Jacobs (2021), I seek an anti-carceral response to distress that is life-affirming and community-based across both literal policing and practices and policies that surveil and police people with experiences of Madness and/or distress in other ways.
