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The Madness of Women

Myth and Experience

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Series: Women and Psychology.

Nominated for the 2012 Distinguished Publication Award of The Association for Women in Psychology!

Why are women more likely to be positioned or diagnosed as mad than men?

If madness is a social construction, a gendered label, as many feminist critics would argue, how can we understand and explain women's prolonged misery and distress? In turn, can we prevent or treat women’s distress, in a non-pathologising women centred way? The Madness of Women addresses these questions through a rigorous exploration of the myths and realities of women's madness.

Drawing on academic and clinical experience, including case studies and in-depth interviews, as well as on the now extensive critical literature in the field of mental health, Jane Ussher presents a critical multifactorial analysis of women's madness that both addresses the notion that madness is a myth, and yet acknowledges the reality and multiple causes of women's distress. Topics include:

  • The genealogy of women’s madness – incarceration of difficult or deviant women
  • Regulation through treatment
  • Deconstrucing depression, PMS and borderline personality disorder
  • Madness as a reasonable response to objectification and sexual violence
  • Women’s narratives of resistance

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of psychology, gender studies, sociology, women's studies, cultural studies, counselling and nursing.

Table of Contents

1. The Madness of Women: Myth or Experience? 2. The Daughter of Hysteria: Depression as a "Woman’s Problem"? 3. Labelling Women as Mad: Regulating and Oppressing Women. 4. Woman as Object, not Subject: Madness as Response to Objectification and Sexual Violence. 5. The Construction and Lived Experience of Women’s Distress: Positioning Premenstrual Change as Psychiatric Illness. 6. Women’s Madness: Resistance and Survival.

Reviews

"The book is fascinating and informative while at times gruesome as it explores the treatment of many women who are considered mad. … It would be beneficial for students and teachers to use the book in feminist studies, gender studies, sociology, psychology, and women's studies, as a tool for increasing the understanding and application of madness and women. … One of the major strengths … is the focus on several characteristics of madness, including depression, BPD PTSD, and PMDD." - Hennie Weiss, California State University, USA, in Sex Roles

"Ussher writes persuasively and clearly, using nuggets of examples to provoke thought. … This was a fascinating and evidence-based book, which never claims to be representing two sides of a debate. I think Ussher might argue that her side of the argument needs more airtime in the psychiatric climate it is being voiced in, and perhaps she is right." – Lucy Maddox, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, London, UK, in The Psychologist

"This book is beautifully written and the arguments powerful and sophisticated, whilst at the same time accessible. The author’s mastery in research and writing are clearly evident. The book is destined to become a ‘classic’ text in feminist psychology. A pleasure to read!" – Michelle Lafrance, Department of Psychology, St. Thomas University, Canada

"This book is a compelling, hard-hitting and illuminating analysis of the social cultural, historical and economic forces producing the madness of women. It is a powerful illustration of a long-standing feminist view – that the personal is political." – Ann Weatherall, School of Psychology, University of Wellington, New Zealand

Author/Editor Biography

Jane M. Ussher is Professor of Women’s Health Psychology, and director of Gender Culture and Health Research at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. She is author of a number of books. Her current research focuses on women’s sexual and reproductive health, with particular emphasis on premenstrual experiences, gendered issues in caring, and sexuality and fertility in the context of cancer.

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