Umbra X attempts to install a new method by which to talk of mental health. It combines anecdotal writing, autobiography, memory, poetry, conversation and philosophy to open up and make transparent the conversations around mental health. Umbra X features exceptional writers from all over the world, who use the occasion of film to talk of characters, groups, and cultures who feature rarely in conversations around mental health - but who should instead, occupy one of its centres.
We call the issue 'Madness'. The term is fraught with associations in history as well as in terms of stigma employed within social and biomedical contexts. Our attempt here, as with any issue of Umbra, is to reclaim a concept, examine its diversity of meanings and enrich it anew, through conversation.