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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. 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. 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. \"Jane Ussher's new book on women and madness is her third, and every bit as good as her path-breaking, earlier discussions. ... A valuable and impressive book. It will be take seriously by feminist theorists, as well as by those in the biomedical and social sciences, and it will prove a useful addition to curricula at graduate and undergraduate levels in the fields of psychology, feminist studies, and psychiatry.\" - Jennifer Radden, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA, in Psychology of Women Quarterly \"A complex and intriguing book. ... Anyone interested in a feminist and cultural perspective on how women come to be labeled as mad will find this book an interesting but valuable challenge.\" - Maxine Harris, CEO of Community Connections, Washington, D.C., USA in Psychiatric Services \"Written with verve in a polemical style, this book will not bore the reader. It starts with a convincing and moving deconstruction of the concept of madness, and moves on to a brief exploration of historical ideas about it. ... (This) includes first-hand testimony from psychiatric patients about the cruelty they have undergone; the combination of those women’s voices and Ussher’s confident tone is arresting. ... This book will be of interest to a wide range of readers beyond the obvious women’s studies market. Training psychological practitioners (counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists and arts therapists) should read it. Cultural studies, cultural history, social anthropology and sociology students will also find this book useful.\" - Times Higher Education Textbook Guide, November 2011 \"The cumulative power of Ussher’s material equals her commitment to the cause. It is hard to imagine any psychologist reading this book without coming to agree with some of its fundamental points. ... Ussher’s critique of the deeply gendered basis of many of our fundamental assumptions about the sexes and, indeed, about human nature cuts that deeply and incisively.\" - Harriette Kaley, psychoanalyst, New York, USA, in PsycCRITIQUES \" The strength of this book lies in Ussher's detailed critique of the medicalisation of women's distress. ... She carefully dissects the diagnostic categories frequently applied to women. Whilst her descriptions of the profound misogyny involved in the labelling and treating of women with 'depression' are very compelling.\" - Caroline Cupitt, clinical psychologist, NHS, UK, in The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy \"I recently taught a section of (The Madness of Women) in an undergraduate course on Philosophy and Mental Illness, and it was influential with my students, who returned to its arguments again and again throughout the course. ... It would make an excellent text for graduate school courses not only in psychiatry and psychology, but in social work, nursing, and philosophy.\" - Nancy Nyquist Potter, University of Louisville, USA in Metapsychology \"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

In her role as devoted wife, the Hindu goddess Parvati is the divine embodiment ofviraha, the agony of separation from one's beloved, a form of love that is also intense suffering. These contradictory emotions reflect the overlapping dissolutions of love, family, and mental health explored by Sarah Pinto in this visceral ethnography.Daughters of Parvaticenters on the lives of women in different settings of psychiatric care in northern India, particularly the contrasting environments of a private mental health clinic and a wing of a government hospital. Through an anthropological consideration of modern medicine in a nonwestern setting, Pinto challenges the dominant framework for addressing crises such as long-term involuntary commitment, poor treatment in homes, scarcity of licensed practitioners, heavy use of pharmaceuticals, and the ways psychiatry may reproduce constraining social conditions. Inflected by the author's own experience of separation and single motherhood during her fieldwork,Daughters of Parvatiurges us to think about the ways women bear the consequences of the vulnerabilities of love and family in their minds, bodies, and social worlds.

This one-of-a-kind book presents evidence-based coverage of the assessment and treatment of the most common mental health disorders among women, particularly low-income women. For each disorder—depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and trauma (including sexual abuse), generalized anxiety disorder, substance use disorder, and borderline personality disorder—the authors include assessment instruments and detailed case examples that illustrate the assessment and treatment recommendations.

No detailed description available for \"The Myth of Empowerment\".

\"This is a comprehensive, up-to-date and evidence-based review of women's mental health. It starts by considering the social and cultural contexts of women's lives today before addressing how developmental aspects pertain to mental health, exploring biological, evolutionary and psychosocial parameters. The heart of the book contains a series of chapters with a clinical emphasis. These aim to elucidate causal mechanisms for gender differences in mental disorder considering hormonal and environmental influences. The therapeutic implications of gender are then addressed in some detail, with a focus on inter-partner and other forms of violence, substance misuse, personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. The book concludes with a detailed section considering psychosis and its sequelae in women and their families. The book's scope is intended to be broad, and it is aimed at a clinical audience including psychiatrists and general physicians, as well as mental health nurses, psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists\"-- Provided by publisher.

`This book is an invaluable resource for all healthcare professionals working with women in secure services. It offers an insight into the needs of an often reviled but vulnerable client group.' -Journal of Advanced Nursing `The Editors have successfully maintained a readable and thought-provoking style in a multi-author text and the book can be recommended to all mental health professionals in this field'. -The Mental Health Review, Vol 10 Issue 3 `This publication is aimed at practitioners who work with women in secure settings. There is relatively little material available which integrates practice, research and service development issues in this challenging area, and this publication fills an important gap. The first section explores and explains the theoretical issues which should underpin relevant policies and practices by the different practitioners operating in this, somewhat neglected, field. The section covers matters such a gender and forensic mental health, the vulnerability of women in prison, and women's pathways into and through secure mental health services. The second focuses on practice issues including challenges for forensic mental health nurses; experiences of women patients, and lessons for practice from a women's group in a medium secure setting. The final section explores key themes for service development. This is a thought-provoking and authoritative resource.' - Care and Health Magazine `This is an honest and open review of the challenges faced by staff working with women in secure mental health settings, and current research, thinking and developments in service provision. It's contributors provide a rich multi-disciplinary perspective, in welcome contrast to the medical model that more usually drives high and medium secure units…Contributors question current practice in, for example, the management of aggression and the use of response teams, discussing these interventions from the viewpoints of service users and suggesting more positive alternative approaches…well-written and intense insight into working with this challenging client group.' -Mental Health Today A pressing need for the integration of current practice, research and service development is addressed in this comprehensive book, which explores the experience of work with women in secure mental health settings. The first section offers different perspectives on the needs and situations of this minority population. It includes consideration of the differing needs of women and men, and key environmental and therapeutic issues highlighted by recent research and service provision. Further chapters cover clinical illustrations of work with women in different settings, including descriptions of integrated multi-disciplinary practice, discussion of the experience of female patients and staff on a mixed sex ward, and exploration of therapeutic groupwork. The final section offers practice guidelines and frameworks for both individual staff and professional teams. At a time when the government's national agenda for mental health has focused on specialist secure provision for women, this book is essential reading for all those working in this challenging area.