Sascha Altman DuBrul

Sascha Altman DuBrul
Background information
Birth name	Sascha Altman DuBrul
Also known as	Sascha Scatter
Born	1974
Origin	New York City
Genres	punk rock
Occupation(s)	Activist, writer, musician

Sascha Altman DuBrul, a.k.a. Sascha DuBrul or Sascha Scatter, (born 1974) is an American activist, writer, farmer and

After dropping out of Reed, DuBrul played in the ska-punk band Choking Victim.^[10] In 1995, he co-organized a traveling punk circus, which he then wrote about in his first book Carnival of Chaos: On the Road With the Nomadic Festival, published by Autonomedia. For eight years, DuBrul wrote a quarterly column for the punk zine Slug and Lettuce.^[11] DuBrul has written and lectured about the perceived relationships between punk, activist culture, racial identity, oppression, and privilege.^[12] His memoir Maps to the Other Side^[13] was released in 2013 and focuses on DuBrul's navigation of the psychiatric system and creative mental health advocacy. In recent years, his writing has focused on drawing links between punk rock, Judaism, and the power and complexities of spiritual community.^[7]

In his early twenties, DuBrul traveled to

In 2002, DuBrul wrote "Bipolar World", an article published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, relating his personal experiences being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Among the dozens of e-mails and other correspondence that he received after this publication was a letter from Jacks Ashley McNamara, an artist and writer who identified strongly with his experiences.^[22] DuBrul and McNamara corresponded for a few weeks to form The Icarus Project, devoted to creating a new view of mental illness.^[4] DuBrul has been quoted as claiming he has "superpowers" due to his allegedly heightened sensitivity to his surroundings.^[23]

The Icarus Project is an online, international radical community support network and media project with over 14,000 participants.^[24][25][26] It has numerous local groups across North America and has released a number of publications. Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness; A Reader and Roadmap of Bipolar Worlds was published by the Icarus Project in March 2004 and is currently in its 10th printing.^[27]

Shortly after the Icarus launched, DuBrul embarked on a tour of North America, facilitating workshops and leading discussions on alternative conceptions of mental illness and wellness. After the tour, Dubrul worked with McNamara and other Icarus members to create a guide for creating community support around madness and mental health. This was published under the title "Friends Make the Best Medicine."^[28]

In 2007, DuBrul and a group of fellow Icarus Project members organized the "Mad Gifts Tour."

DuBrul toured Europe in 2011, facilitating workshops and giving talks about radical mental health support.[31] During the summers of 2010 and 2012, he co-taught month long seminars at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur.^[32]

In the Spring of 2013, in conjunction with the release of his book, Maps to the Other Side, DuBrul, along with Icarus Project co-founder Ashley Jacks McNamara, toured the United States giving readings, and conducting workshops and discussions on mental health.^[33]

After 12 years, DuBrul stepped back from his work with the Icarus Project to train as a clinician in the public mental health system.^[34] He attended social work school at Silberman School of Social Work,^[35] which included a year long internship (in dialogic practice) with the Parachute Project,^[36][37] and he was then hired by the Center for Practice Innovations at the New York State Psychiatric Institute as a trainer of Peer Specialists in First Episode Psychosis programs.^[38] While at the Institute, he was the first author for the Peer Specialist manual for OnTrackNY.^[39][40]

During this period, DuBrul also helped to develop the Institute for the Development of Human Arts (IDHA), a training institute for mental health workers. This institute offers training to clinicians and peer workers in order to think about their personal relationship to mental health and illness. It is also building a network of mentorship to positively transform the mental health system.^[41]

Dubrul is quoted as saying that “his interests lie at the intersection of the public mental health system and the Mad Underground.”^[42]

In recent years, DuBrul has focused on his private practice and developing the growing Transformative Mental Health Movement. He is a public proponent and practitioner of the Internal Family Systems therapy model.^[43][44][45]

In 2022, he taught the “Severe Mental Illness” course at the Community Mental Health program at the California Institute of Integral Studies.^[46] Later that year, DuBrul spoke on a panel hosted by IDHA called “Movement Lineages” where he and other movement leaders reflected “on how radical mental health organizing has shifted and evolved over the past several decades” to “share key lessons that can inform future work.”^[47][48][49]

• Carnival of Chaos: On the Road With the Nomadic Festival 1996.
  ISBN 978-1-57027-047-5
• El Otro Lado (The Other Side). 1999. Self-published zine.
• Walking the Edge of Insanity. 2002. Published by The Icarus Project
• Blinking Red Lights and the Souls of Our Friends. 2003. Self-published zine.
• Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness; A Reader and Roadmap of Bipolar Worlds. 2004. The Icarus Project. Currently in its 6th printing.[50]
• Mutant Superpowers & Lithium Pills. 2006. Self-published zine.
• Maps to The Other Side: the Adventures of A Bipolar Cartographer 2013. Microcosm Publishing
• Wege auf die andere Seite. In: Will Hall, Jenseits der Psychiatrie – Stimmen und Visionen des Wahnsinns im Madness Radio. Berlin & Lancaster:
  ISBN 978-3-910546-26-4