Women and Madness
Feminist icon Chesler's pioneering work—2.5 million copies sold—revised and updated for the first time in 30 years. This definitive book was the first to address critical questions about women and mental health. Combining patient interviews with an analysis of women's roles in history, society, and myth Chesler concludes that there is a terrible double standard when it comes to women's psychology. In this new edition, she addresses head-on many of the most relevant issues to women and mental...
Search in google:
Feminist icon Phyllis Chesler's pioneering work—2.5 million copies sold—revised and updated for the first time in over thirty years Library Journal Still strident after all these years, prominent feminist author and activist Chesler (The Death of Feminism) here updates her classic on female psychology. A new introduction is followed by a restatement of her earlier work with updated commentary. In a text richly textured with classical and research references, she revisits her original study of psychiatric bias and oppression, including sex between patient and clinician, and reviews how the feminist landscape has changed since the 1970s. Chesler continues to assert that the male-dominated mental health system is sexist and shows how the [mis]diagnosis of madness has been applied to individuals who reject the stereotypical female role (e.g. Sylvia Plath, Zelda Fitzgerald) and to illnesses that reflect the acting out of the socially devalued female role (e.g., depression, sexual dysfunction). Though concluding that her original arguments have been largely supported, she proposes a new feminist psychology that is more nuanced than might be expected. Filled with cogent insights and applications to contemporary issues (e.g., biological psychiatry, eating disorders), the book embodies enough revision to make it relevant while still retaining the power of the original. With an extensive bibliography; recommended for a new generation of public library users and for all women's studies and mental health collections.-Antoinette Brinkman, MLS, Evansville, IN Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Demeter and Clytemnestra, revisited471Why madness?59Women in asylums : four lives61Mothers and daughters : a mythological commentary on the lives78Heroines and madness : Joan of Arc and the Virgin Mary852Asylums93The mental asylum93The female social role and psychiatric symptoms : depression, frigidity, and suicide attempts98Schizophrenia in three studies109A theoretical proposal1153The clinicians119How many clinicians are there in America?121Contemporary clinical ideology126Traditional clinical ideology136The institutional nature of private therapy1654The female career as a psychiatric patient173The interviews1795Sex between patient and therapist1916Psychiatrically institutionalized women2177Lesbians237The interviews2468Third world women261The interviews2739Feminists291The interviews30210Female psychology : past, present, and future317Female psychology in our culture : women alone317Female psychology in our culture : women in groups322Amazon societies : visions and possibilities334The problem of survival : power and violence341Some psychological prescriptions for the future345Thirteen questions349
\ From the PublisherPraise for earlier editions:"Intense, rapid, brilliant. A pioneer contribution to the feminization of psychiatric thinking and practice."—Adrienne Rich, Front Page, The New York Times Book Review"Challenges the definition of madness itself. No serious future studies will be able to ignore its theories or its very existence."—Gloria Steinem, Ms. Magazine"A stunning book...absolutely fascinating...necessary to every woman in America."—Los Angeles Times\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalStill strident after all these years, prominent feminist author and activist Chesler (The Death of Feminism) here updates her classic on female psychology. A new introduction is followed by a restatement of her earlier work with updated commentary. In a text richly textured with classical and research references, she revisits her original study of psychiatric bias and oppression, including sex between patient and clinician, and reviews how the feminist landscape has changed since the 1970s. Chesler continues to assert that the male-dominated mental health system is sexist and shows how the [mis]diagnosis of madness has been applied to individuals who reject the stereotypical female role (e.g. Sylvia Plath, Zelda Fitzgerald) and to illnesses that reflect the acting out of the socially devalued female role (e.g., depression, sexual dysfunction). Though concluding that her original arguments have been largely supported, she proposes a new feminist psychology that is more nuanced than might be expected. Filled with cogent insights and applications to contemporary issues (e.g., biological psychiatry, eating disorders), the book embodies enough revision to make it relevant while still retaining the power of the original. With an extensive bibliography; recommended for a new generation of public library users and for all women's studies and mental health collections.-Antoinette Brinkman, MLS, Evansville, IN Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ Booknews Reprint of the 1972 Doubleday edition which is listed in . This 25th anniversary edition includes a new introduction by the author. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.\ \
