The Madness of Women: Myth and Experience

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 womens prolonged misery and distress? In turn, can we prevent or treat womens 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 womens 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 womens madness that both addresses the notion that madness is a myth, and yet acknowledges the reality and multiple causes of womens distress. Topics include: The genealogy of womens 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 Womens narratives of resistance This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of psychology, gender studies, sociology, womens studies, cultural studies, counselling and nursing.