Lunatics’ rights activism in Britain and the German Empire, 1870–1920

Participation and empowerment are core issues in contemporary mental health policy. Involving (ex-)users as ‘experts by experience’ has become an internationally accepted guiding principle for civil society health promotion, especially in the wake of the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, this ‘mainstream user involvement’ also meets with scepticism from user self-advocacy initiatives and organisations. This can, for example, be seen in the words of Diana Rose, a ‘user/survivor academic’ at London’s King’s College, who, while criticising the austerity policy in the British healthcare system, emphasises the significance of local, ‘hidden’ and often radical grassroots groups: