The problem of distress and disability

This chapter, “The problem of distress and disability,” responds to common objections that madness is inherently distressing and disabling. These objections are seen to undermine positive constructions such as Mad Pride. On the question of disability this chapter responds by developing two bulwarks against the tendency to assume too readily the medical view that madness is inherently disabling: the first arises from the normative nature of disability judgments, and the second from the implications of political activism in terms of being a social subject. The chapter explores the social model of disability in light of debates on naturalism and normativism; the applicability of the social model to madness; and the difference between physical and mental disabilities in terms of the unintelligibility often attributed to the latter. On the question of distress, the chapter demonstrates that a phenomenon can be distressing and valuable, and this despite distress or because of it.