Abstract

This article considers the cultural determination of Mental Health and the role conferred on language in the social construction of madness. From a historical perspective, the origin of organizations of “ex-patients and survivors” of psychiatry is examined together with the emergence of Mad Pride as a movement that challenges stigma, prejudice, discrimination and violence of sanism as a form of oppression. In this tradition, the use of the term Mad is redefined, a word that originally damaged, now reclaiming its meaning as part of human diversity; a condition of life that deserves to be recognized and celebrated in the public space. From a qualitative perspective and from an ethnographic approach, the symbolic productions of the Mad Pride marches held in Santiago between 2015 and 2018 are analyzed. Regarding the meanings of diversity, protest and carnival, the scope of this initiative is described in the field of political participation and citizen expression in contemporary Chile.