A Bright Field of Convergence: A Year-End Reflection from ICI Executive Director Cooper Davis

The past year has been one of massive transformation, not just for Inner Compass Initiative, but for the cause of mental health reform. 

Many who have long felt alone in our views and/or struggles may have noticed an emerging coalition. The once tiny realm of prescribed-harm communities and online campaigners is beginning to grow. Increasingly, ideas and figures from within that world are breaking containment and showing up in the most unlikely places—National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal, the Tucker Carlson podcast, and everywhere in between.

Like all organic cultural movements, the issues driving the discourse impact the lives of people from every social, economic, and political stratum. That diversity can make for strange bedfellows; emphatic agreement among parties who are otherwise incapable of agreeing on anything is powerful evidence that this movement is driven by something authentic.

I cannot think of anything more needed at this time than shared, authentically held beliefs that bridge divides and reunite those who have become estranged over the last five hyperpartisan, family-shattering years. And so far, attempts to impose a partisan sheen on calls for mental health reform have failed to scare people away. People from all over the political map are joining the chorus.

"I am now convinced that this transpartisan, grassroots mental health reform movement is, in fact, real."

The ICI Conference

Of all that’s happened this year—from growing recognition of psychiatric drug harms in mainstream outlets to calls for better informed consent and noncoercive options—nothing brought these shifts into sharper focus quite like our recent conference.

I have a privileged point of view as executive director of ICI, a central node in the larger network of people and groups dedicated to these issues. The growing diversity of the movement that I have described here was mostly a felt sense until recently. Just a few weeks ago, ICI held its first-ever conference. The Future of Mental Health in America was not an online event with anonymous accounts tuning in—it was in a real conference room in West Hartford, Connecticut, with nearly 200 people from all over the world attending. I am now convinced that this transpartisan, grassroots mental health reform movement is, in fact, real.

The conference was a first-of-its-kind event, and many of you attended in person, were speakers, or watched the live stream (the conference recordings are available for all ticketholders here). In a single day, the conference wove together the history of our mental health culture with hard facts about how psych drugs actually work (and don’t work) and personal stories—some of harm, some of hope, all told with beautiful candor—that don't slot easily into the dominant, default mental health paradigm.

A Bright Field of Convergence

What was made obvious at the conference was not only how powerful this movement is becoming but also how broad. Those of you who have been on the receiving end of the mental health system—many of whom have been speaking out for years, often at great personal cost—are no longer speaking just to one another or into a void. You’re now joined by two other groups: (1) Clinicians, including doctors and therapists and (2) Other professionals, such as academics, political operatives, and journalists.

The conference brought these three groups—patients/former patients, clinicians, and other professionals—together in what I see as a Venn diagram: three overlapping circles with a small but bright field of convergence. Despite the broad demographics represented at the conference, the sense of coherence and alignment was palpable. I'm told that even watching the live stream, the feeling of group solidarity came through. 

“Your experiences, long sidelined or dismissed as the grievances of an unlucky few, are finally moving front and center.”

Our Core Community

Importantly, ICI and our core community—patients/former patients—were the conveners. It is the courage and persistence of this group—people with the most direct experience and the most at stake—that is driving and expanding that overlap.

This matters deeply to our community. Your experiences, long sidelined or dismissed as the grievances of an unlucky few, are finally moving front and center. They are helping to calibrate a new baseline for how our society addresses the diverse struggles, injuries, and adaptations that fall into the oversized bucket labeled “mental health challenges.” 

The world is waking up to realize that our culture has lost track of the value of struggle. We have allowed “finding a diagnosis” to take the place of “finding meaning.” ICI is helping chart the course back to our shared inner compass.