Lauren J. Tenney, PhD, has engaged in rights-based work for more than three decades, some of which  explores what happens when voices and visions, trance, and related experiences become vulnerable to coercive psychiatric intervention, labeling, and treatment. This work is informed in part by her own spiritual experiences, which were psychiatrized when she was fifteen years old. Tenney holds a doctoral degree in Psychology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, with a specialization in Environmental Psychology. Her publications include (de)VOICED: Human Rights Now, “Spirituality Psychiatrized: A Participatory Planning Process,” and “Spirituality and Mad Studies.” More recently, while using a trance method during research for her forthcoming book, Except as a Punishment: Psycarceration—U.S. Psychiatry in Historical Context, she unexpectedly uncovered nineteenth-century histories involving trance mediums, spiritualists, abolitionists, dissenters, and lunatic asylum inmates, bringing her work full circle. Lauren currently lives in Maryland with her service dog, Kiba. When not deep in the archives or protesting in the streets, you can find 10e painting, making reels, and practicing Mad Magick.

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