Peter Anthony Shaughnessy (14 September 1962 – 15 December 2002) was a British mental health activist and one of the founders of

Mad Pride Mad Pride is a mass movement of the users of mental health services, former users, and the aligned, which advocates that individuals with mental illness should be proud of their 'mad' identity. Mad Pride activists seek to reclaim terms such as " m ...

, a group of mental health activists who reclaimed terms such as "mad" and "nutter" from misuse, and campaigned for the rights of the mentally ill. Shaughnessy was born in South London in a

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

family. He studied

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

at the

Rose Bruford College Rose Bruford College (formerly Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance) is a drama school in the south London suburb of Sidcup. The college has degree programmes in acting, actor musicianship, directing, theatre arts and various discipl ...

, Sidcup, from 1983 to 1986. He then worked in a children's home and as a carer for people with disabilities, before becoming a bus driver in 1990 on

London Buses route 36 London Buses route 36 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between New Cross Gate and Queen's Park, it is operated by London Central. History Route 36 dates back to 1911 when London General Omnibus Comp ...

.Pete Shaughnessy - Campaigner who took the stigma out of insanity.
Mark Olden, The Guardian, 23 January 2003, P22. ''NB: Original does not show in The Guardian archives but was validated by an editor with access here: http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/0F8C4D8224FB8550?p=WORLDNEWS '' In April 1992, coming to the aid of a conductor who was being assaulted, Shaughnessy was hit with an iron bar. Shortly afterwards he went on a silent hunger strike outside his bus garage in protest at the privatisation of the service, which was leading to more work for less pay. By the end of the year he was hospitalised. The diagnostic category applied was

manic depression Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

. Shaughnessy organised a "Reclaim Bedlam" campaign in the late 1990s, initially to protest against anniversary celebrations of the

Bethlem Hospital Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in London. Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films and TV series, most notably ''Bedlam'', a 1946 film with Bo ...

. They then protested the offices of the charity SANE and its head Marjorie Wallace who was campaigning for Compulsory Treatment Orders (

outpatient commitment Outpatient commitment—also called assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) or community treatment orders (CTO)—refers to a civil court procedure wherein a legal process orders an individual diagnosed with a severe mental disorder to adhere to an o ...

) – she changed tack following the adverse publicity. From there Shaughnessy started

with fellow activists Robert Dellar, Simon Barnett and Mark Roberts. During 2000, with

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

-style campaigns and humour, they helped prevent certain changes to the Mental Health Act. According to Ben Watson, "Shaughnessy's courage and humour and sheer bloody-mindedness shifted something. Permanently." According to

Phil Barker Phil Barker (born 5 November 1932) is one of the major figures in the development of the modern hobby of tabletop wargaming, particularly that of ancient warfare, and is a co-founder of the Wargames Research Group. In the 1960s he was a methods ...

, the UK's first Professor of Psychiatric Nursing Practice, "His campaigning and direct actions helped push the government on to the back foot over their plans for forced drug treatment for the mentally ill in the community. He fought against the stigma surrounding mental illness with passion, compassion and humour." On 15 December 2002, Shaughnessy took his life by stepping in front of a train at

Battersea Park railway station Battersea Park is a suburban railway station in the London Borough of Wandsworth, south London. It is at the junction of the South London Line and the Brighton Main Line (although the physical connection between the lines has been removed), me ...

in London. His last known contact had been on 13 December at the NHS Acre day hospital in what was by then his home town of

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

on the south coast. His obituary in ''

The Big Issue ''The Big Issue'' is a street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or individ ...

'' (with which he had been involved) called him "a colossus in the mental health world". Clinical psychologist

Rufus May Rufus May (born 1968) is a British clinical psychologist best known for using his own experiences of being a psychiatric patient to promote alternative recovery approaches for those experiencing psychotic symptoms. After formally qualifying a ...

praised him for having told the truth.Obituary: Pete Shaughnessey
6–12 January 2003 - The Big Issue, By Sam Hart and Mark Olden

See also

References

Further reading