mad studies grew out of mad pride and survivor thinking, and focuses on developing scholarly thinking around "mental health" by academics who self-identify as mad. as noted in "mad matters: a critical reader in canadian mad studies" (lefrançois, menzies and reaume, 2013), "mad studies can be defined in general terms as a project of inquiry, knowledge production, and political action devoted to the critique and transcendence of psy-centred ways of thinking, behaving, relating, and being". as a book, mad matters' offers a critical discussion of mental health and madness in ways that demonstrate the struggles, oppression, resistance, agency and perspectives of mad people to challenge dominant understandings of ‘mental illness’". ""mad studies" is a growing, evolving, multi-voiced and interdisciplinary field of activism, theory, praxis and scholarship."