Psychiatric Survivors and Experiential Rights

Human rights may be categorised as belonging to ʹthree generationsʹ: political, social and ʹsolidarityʹ rights. This paper considers this schema theoretically, deploying the example of the ʹpsychiatric survivorʹ movement in Britain in support of its central claims. Psychiatric survivors comprise groups of psychiatric patients who have campaigned both for political and social rights in addition to a singular form of ʹright, which is referred to here as ʹexperientialʹ The paper clarifies the meaning of the ʹexperiential rightʹ and, drawing upon aspects of social theory, considers how it is to be understood in the context of the ʹthree generationsʹ schema.