THE WASHINGTON POST
    THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1994
 
    CYBERSURFING
 
    DIRECTIONS FOR A HEAD TRIP
 
    Perturbations, pleasures, and predicaments on the
    information superhighway:
 
    If you've heard about ThisIsCrazy on the Internet
    and try to subscribe to it, you will find yourself
    redirected to MADNESS, and if you are anywhere
    in the bubble of the bell you might think that's
    because CRAZY is politically incorrect and that
    MADNESS is a kinder and gentler appellation.  But
    the fact is that ThisIsCrazy has too many characters,
    11, and St. John's College, the list manager for
    Sylvia Cara's MADNESS group, insists on staying
    under the DOS limit of eight.
 
    Inside, however, you will find plenty of characters
    whose motives and agendas are 100 percent
    upfront, yet dusted with an overlay of mist, like
    madness itself, so that in any attempt to pin down
    reality the target quickly slips away.
 
    Caras, who bills herself publicly as the Madwoman
    of Santa Cruz, is a 59-year-old survivor of Western
    Civilization's system of mental illness treatment,
    or punishment, depending on your point of view.
    The board is like opening up one of the sliding
    doors of the original DOOM, taking a quick look
    inside and then, in terror, slamming the door down
    while you regroup, and try to figure a strategy.   But
    I quickly went back in.
 
    The chambers are populated by what are described
    in the parlance of the group as c/s/x, meaning
    consumers, survivors and ex-patients in the mental
    health services industry.  As defined recently by one
    member, consumers are those who are still using
    services, and broadly includes those who have a
    belief in the medical model of treatment, although
    this is open to question, as is everything else in this
    group.  Survivors are those who genrally have
    rejected the medical model and consider
    themselves survivors both of whatever made them
    feel crazy and the "treatments" they received.
 
    There is a lot of discussion of drugs, such as Prozac,
    and a lot of knowledge about them.  There is
    concern for the stigma attached to those who have
    been treated for mental illness, and a lot of questing
    for reform.  In the words of another member: "We
    are mostly not professionals.  We are people who
    experience mood swings, fear, voices and visions.
    This list focuses more on advocacy and system
    change."
 
    The list founder, Sylvia Caras, started the operation
    last January with 17 subscribers as PEOPLEWHO,
    changed it to ThisIsCrazy in April, and then to
    MADNESS last month.  Caras is a 1956 Wellesley
    graduate who had a husband once and has a
    grandchild now and who has been put away by a
    loving family and has received involuntary
    electroshock treatments, and she defines the list as a
    way to "reclaim the language" of mental illness and
    health.
 
    "In the last year all the pain I've been through, all
    the experiences have all come together here, on the
    Internet, in parallel and in focus," she said in a
    telephone conversation.  "I'm feeling better, the
    homeopathic care I've been using is helping, the
    healing techniques I have encountered here in
    California are working.  I am using myself fully.
    >From my generation there was supposed to be no
    career fulfillment for women, and here I am,
    finding new real vision, sort of a Grandma Moses
    of the Internet."
 
    Not the least of this seems to be the semi-
    anonymous sharing of experience, strength and
    hope that goes on in MADNESS.
 
    -Robert H. Williams
    williamb@twp.com
 
    -GETTING THERE:  Send an e-mail message to
    LISTSERV@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU and in the
    body of message type SUBSCRIBE MADNESS [your
    name].
 
    /lj
 
 
i   thought the piece was nice too.  i'm glad you liked it, and you are 
welcome.  take care.--karen marrero, the washington post.
 ----------
From: Sylvia Caras
To: marrerok; garreau
Cc: williamb
Subject: Directions for a Head Trip
Date: Sunday, December 04, 1994 5:42AM
 
Having our advocacy work noted in *The Washington Post* is a very
special validation.  And Williams coverage was clear and fair.
 
Thanks for putting MADNESS on the map.