Madness Decolonized

books that approach the topic of (in)sanity from a non-Western or decolonial perspective. suggestions (or corrections, if I’m mistaken about any of the current books) always welcome!

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created by kishmish

last updated May, 2026

14 books

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The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison

Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health (Outspoken by Pluto)

Micha Frazer-Carroll

Mad Sisters of Esi

Tashan Mehta

Black Madness :: Mad Blackness

Theri Alyce Pickens

How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind: Madness and Black Radical Creativity (Black Outdoors: Innovations in the Poetics of Study)

LaMarr Jurelle Bruce

Decolonizing Madness: The Psychiatric Writings of Frantz Fanon

Frantz Fanon

Nervous Conditions

Tsitsi Dangarembga

Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation

Eli Clare

Empire of Madness: Reimagining Western Mental Health Care for Everyone

Khameer Kidia

Colored Insane: Slavery, Asylums, and Mental Illness in the Nineteenth Century (Race, Inequality, and Health)

Diana Martha Louis

A Kind of Madness

Uché Okonkwo

Freshwater

Akwaeke Emezi

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

Antonia Hylton

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

Esmé Weijun Wang

Comments

Hawksquill

Thank you so much for making this list, I am looking forward to reading and learning from so many of these!

kishmishOP

that’s very kind of you to say! 🫶🏽 the theme ended up connecting a lot of otherwise very dissimilar books. I hope you enjoy whatever you end up reading, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you think!

vumaisbooked

Ooh what a unique list. It may be western but I can I please suggest The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison?

kishmishOP

yes, I’ve added it! Thank you for the suggestion 🫶🏽 I think it definitely belongs! In my opinion, Black Americans and all descendants of those kidnapped during the transatlantic slave trade have to be included in any global decolonial thinking/building. “Western” isn’t really a great term, but I sometimes really struggle with the best ways of phrasing things and have to just hope for patience from others.

vumaisbooked

I understand you completely! It’s hard to define, thanks for adding!