Go Nuts! Unit

Takeaways

• Appreciate the diversity of perspectives within the mad community
• Value a radical service user perspective which celebrates mental diversity, simple pleasures, and alternative treatment modalities

Component

This component is a short video called Go Nuts! – an entertaining 4-minute homage to mad culture and a provocative critique of normalcy and its banality. 

Evaluating the Components

• Component Evaluation: Finding Fun – 15 minutes
• Component Evaluation: Across the Modules – 30 minutes

Learning Lens

The dominant message in the mental health world is that the mad need to be made “normal.” Project community expert Irit Shimrat says sometimes it’s great to be nuts; her short 4-minute video celebrates those times, but is also a comment on the need to reclaim and celebrate pleasures.  Students can take this message into their mental health practice.

Go Nuts! is an entertaining 4-minute homage to mad culture. Two unit learning activities explore different facets of community expert Irit Shimrat’s survival and coping strategies.