Over the Borderline--A Review of Margaret Price's <i>Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life</i>

This Article is about “madness” in higher education. In Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life, Professor Margaret Price analyzes the rhetoric and discourse surrounding mental disabilities in academia. In this Article, I place Price’s work in a legal context, discussing why the Americans with Disabilities Act fails those with mental illness and why reform is needed to protect them. My own narrative as a law professor with Borderline Personality Disorder frames my critique.

Narratives of mental illness are important because they help connect those who are often stigmatized and isolated due to mental illness and provide a framework for them to overcome barriers limiting their equal participation in academic life.