Introduction: Mad Methods, Methods of Madness

In this editors’ introduction to our special issue on Mad Methods, we reflect on the solidification of mad studies as it becomes increasingly recognized as an academic field. Tracing the rich histories, lineages, and activist genealogies that animate mad knowledges and methods, we remain grounded in the community-building and activist efforts from which the field emerges. We approach mad methods as an honoring of multiplicity, featuring authors who showcase diverse paths and practices that make known varied forms of activist engagement and critical inquiry. Engaging the debates, commitments, and transformations shaping mad studies, we ask how the field might sustain its critical edge as it moves from the margins toward institutional recognition. As mad life, thought, perspectives, and methods come to occupy more central scholarly and political spaces, we consider how the work of mad studies can navigate the tensions associated with acceptance and recognition to realize its transformative aims without reproducing the hierarchies it seeks to dismantle. This introduction and open-access special issue invite robust conversation on how to proceed along multiple paths toward a more just, inclusive, and expansive world.