MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL ILLNESS This section reviews topics concerning women and mental health and/or mental illness. Included are sources on the perspectives of women on “madness” and serious mental illness, depression, self-esteem, psychological adjustment to disabilities and impairments, the affects of postpartum depression on mothers, the unique needs of women’s mental health as well as the needs of women with severe mental illness.
Ali, A., & Toner, B. B. (2001, September). Symptoms of depression among Caribbean women and Caribbean-Canadian women.
Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25(3), 175-180.
This study compared an immigrant sample of Caribbean-Canadian women (n =: 20) and a sample of women living in the Caribbean (n = 20) on the following variables: dominant domain of meaning (defined as that aspect of the participant's life from which she derives primary meaning for her sense of self); self-silencing (defined as the tendency to silence one's thoughts and feelings; Jack, 1991); and symptoms of depression. Results revealed that the Caribbean women were more likely to report relational domains of meaning as primary (e.g., family, friendships, intimate relationships), while the Caribbean-Canadian women were more likely to report domain of self-nurturance as primary (e.g., career goals, spirituality). Furthermore, univariate analysis revealed that the Caribbean-Canadian women reported higher levels of self-silencing and depressive symptoms, and derived less meaningfulness from their primary domains of meaning compared to the Caribbean women. These findings suggest that the immigrant experience may be a factor in women's emotional well-being.
Altman, B. M., & Smith, R. T. (1992). Impact of rehabilitation on psychological distress: Gender differences.
International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, 15(1), 75-81.
Analysis of data (n=11,739) from a Social Security Survey (1978) examined rehabilitation and mental health characteristics of people with various disabilities or health problems. Correlates of psychological distress included nature of the disability, race, education, gender. Men and women also responded differently to rehabilitation with men experiencing increased stress in medical rehabilitation models.
Amirault, C. (1994). Teaching the culture of mental illness.
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 2(3), 32-55. Retrieved March 12, 2005 from
http://www.albany.edu/scj/jcjpc/vol2is3/mental.html The author writes about how in the fall of 1993 he designed and taught a course entitled "American Psychos and the Culture of Mental Illness." The author emphasizes his grounding in cultural studies for the course, then analyzes his experience with the course, especially the history and culture of mental illness with many examples throughout on gender and feminist theory. He also discusses the discourse with his students and how he learned from them.
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. (2005).
Maternal and child health fact sheet: The role of state public health in perinatal depression. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved March 12, 2005 from
http://www.astho.org/pubs/PerinatalDepressionFS.pdf.
The Role of State Public Health in Perinatal Depression discusses the role of state public health agencies in partnering with national and statewide programs to ensure access to mental health information and services for pregnant women and new mothers. The fact sheet, produced by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, begins with an overview containing a definition of perinatal depression and information on its prevalence and its impact on women and their families. Other topics include the role of state public health agencies in partnering with federal and state agencies to increase awareness and support, and specific state initiatives (Virginia, Texas, and Pennsylvania) to address issues related to perinatal depression. A conclusion, quick facts about perinatal depression, and a list of references are also included. The fact sheet is intended for use by state public health agencies and their national and state partners in efforts to expand depression screening and referral to improve the overall health of women, children, and families.
Astbury, J. (1999, December).
Gender and mental health. Carlton, Australia: Gender and Health Equity Project, Global Health Equity Initiative (GHEI). Retrieved January 11, 2005 from
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/HUpapers/gender/
astbury.pdf This paper addresses the relationship between gender and mental health. First, the field of mental health and the concept of gender is introduced. This is followed by a discussion of the forms of gender bias implicated in mental health research. Next, gender differences in mental health outcomes are described, including differences in the prevalence and course of conditions. Evidence related to a gendered, social determinants model of mental health is examined. Depression is used as an illustrative example of a mental health condition characterized by a very large gender difference in rates and one to which certain gender differences in life events and social position, such as socioeconomic disadvantage and gender based violence make a significant contribution. Policy recommendations from the evidence based review of gender and mental health conclude the paper.
Bartlett, A., & Hassell, Y. (2001). Do women need special secure services?
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 7, 302-309.
Clinicians working with women patients in secure units will already know that they are the centre of a debate not of their own making, which is about the appropriate specification of services for women patients with security needs. This paper attempts to outline the relevant issues and proposed solutions.
Blehar, M. C., & Keita, G. P. (Eds.). (2003, March). Women and depression [Feature issue].
Journal of Affective Disorders, 74(1).
"For the second time in ten years,
The Journal of Affective Disorders (JAD) devotes a special issue to the topic of women and depression. In 1993, the Journal published a special issue, titled Toward a New Psychobiology of Depression in Women, based on a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) workshop organized by Blehar. This special issue on women and depression builds on NIMH’s contribution and that of the American Psychological Association (APA). This publication comes ten years after the 1990 report by the APA Task Force on Women and Depression, titled
Women and Depression: Risk Factors and Treatment Issues. That book, edited by McGrath, Keita, Strickland, and Russo was one of the first reports that focused on women’s depression.
This issue also stems from the APA’s sponsorship of an October 2000 Summit on Women and Depression. The meeting was initially conceived of by the APA as a way to update the 1990 report. But more importantly, it was brought about through a working partnership that APA forged with other sponsors – among them the Bureau of Primary Health Care/Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office on Women’s Health, and NIMH. Other federal and private organizations collaborated in this undertaking in addition to some of our nation’s foremost experts across disciplines. An executive summary of the Summit is posted on the APA web site
www.apa.org/pi/wpo/women&depression.pdf and the NIMH web site at
www.nimh.nih.gov." (p. 1).
Blum, L. M. (2004). Gender in the Prozac nation: Popular discourse and productive femininity.
Gender & Society, 18(3), 269-286.
Since Prozac emerged on the market at the end of 1987, there has been a dramatic increase in antidepressant use and in its discussion by popular media. Yet there has been little analysis of the gendered character of this phenomenon despite feminist traditions scrutinizing the medical control of women’s bodies. The authors begin to fill this gap through a detailed content analysis of the 83 major articles on Prozac and its "chemical cousins" appearing in large-circulation periodicals in Prozac’s first 12 years. They find that popular talk about Prozac and its competing brands is largely degendered, presented as manifestly gender neutral, yet replete with latent gendered messages. These are about women with neurochemical imbalances but also about the need to discipline elite female bodies, to enhance their productivity and flexibility. This new form of female "fitness" mirrors demands of the New Economy and indicates how psychiatric discourse contributes to the historically specific shaping of gendered bodies.
Bodenhausen, G. V., & Wirth, J. (2004, April). The role of gender stereotypes in mental illness stigma.
Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS). Philadelphia, PA: National Science Foundation. Retrieved March 12, 2005 from
http://www.experimentcentral.org/data/data.php?pid=174 Provides information concerning a brief project where respondents read a vignette describing a target displaying psychiatric symptoms that varied in whether they were stereotypically associated with men or with women. Also included is information on hypotheses, experimental manipulations, key variables, summary of findings and conclusion. It is also possible to download all material concerning the research.
Boyd, J. A. (1998).
Can I get a witness? For sisters, when the blues is more than a song. New York: Dutton.
This book is a wake-up call to black women, their families, and the mental-health community on the subject of depression. Although it's the leading cause of mental-health-related deaths, depression is still not an illness that many African American women have been willing to recognize and treat. The author explores the links between self-esteem, depression, and women's health, and gives vivid testimony to black women's battle with the beast.
Braverman, L. (Ed.). (1988).
A guide to feminist family therapy. New York: Harrington Park Press.
This collection includes chapters written by scholars from a variety of mental health disciplines. All the authors are practicing psychotherapists who have struggled with the problems of integrating a feminist perspective with the practice of family therapy. The book provides an overview of theoretical developments in feminist family therapy, describes how to apply a feminist-sensitive perspective in the treatment of women, and discusses the implications of a feminist-sensitive perspective to therapy training and supervision in family therapy.
The collection is divided into three sections dealing with theoretical issues, clinical applications, and supervision and training issues respectively. The collection starts out by providing a historical review of the literature which has attempted to integrate feminist issues and family therapy. The following chapters address diverse issues such as criticism of family systems theory as a model for treatment for women; abuse and violence against women; lesbian mothers and lesbian daughters; women in alcoholic families; and women and eating disorders. The collection concludes with an essay on teaching an integrated model of family therapy. Also included is an annotated bibliography which lists readings on feminist critique of family therapy, feminist theory and frameworks, feminist critique of the family, research on women and mental health, and contemporary theory and research on women's development. In short, this book contains a wealth of information for those interested in a feminist approach to women's mental health problems and family therapy.
Brickman, B. J. (2004). ‘Delicate’ cutters: Gendered self-mutilation and attractive flesh in medical discourse.
Body & Society, 10(4), 87-111.
In 1960, a relatively new ‘syndrome’ began appearing with growing frequency in psychiatric hospitals and in doctors’ offices. Eventually termed ‘delicate self-cutting’, this new model for typical self-mutilative behavior was developed in conjunction with a description of the ‘typical’ self-mutilator: young (adolescent to just post-adolescent), female, and almost always attractive. This article contends that, despite recent efforts to change the nature of research on self-mutilation, the myth of a typical mutilator, developed from a particular historical bias, continues to work in popular and medical discourses on the subject. I will begin with a detailed discussion of the medical discourse in an effort to ask how the myth was made. Noting that the female body, here, is singled out as pathological at a time when, specifically in the USA, the emergent Women’s Movement was beginning to contest certain gender lines, I would like to examine how the medical discourse and material bodies interrelate and interact with each other and with the cultural narratives around them. Finally, I end with examples from the 1999 film
Girl, Interrupted, as well as other recent popular and medical accounts, to illustrate not only the perpetuation of the myth of the ‘typical’ self-mutilator but also the inability or refusal to recognize the biased nature of the medical discourse in the instance on self-mutilation.
Brown, D., & Keith, V. (Eds.). (2003).
In and out of our right minds: The mental health of African American women. New York: Columbia University Press.
African American women have commonly been portrayed as "pillars" of their communities--resilient mothers, sisters, wives, and grandmothers who remain steadfast in the face of all adversities. While these portrayals imply that African American women have few psychological problems, the scientific literature and demographic data present a different picture. They reveal that African American women are at increased risk for psychological distress because of factors that disproportionately affect them, including lower incomes, greater poverty and unemployment, unmarried motherhood, racism, and poor physical health. Yet at the same time, rates of mental illness are low. This invaluable book is the first comprehensive examination of the contradictions between the strengths and vulnerabilities of this population. Using the contexts of race, gender, and social class,
In and Out of Our Right Minds challenges the traditional notions of mental health and mental illness as they apply to African American women.
Burr, J. (2002, April). Providing a contrasting view to evolutionary psychology's hypotheses on depression: Using a 'material-discursive' approach to interpret the experiences of depression in women from South Asian communities.
Psychology, Evolution & Gender, 4(1), 93-113.
This study reports findings from a qualitative study exploring women from South Asian communities resident in the UK and their 'experiences of depression'. The paper aims to provide an apparently contrasting social context to the evolutionary perspective on women's experiences of depression. The theoretical foundation for the analysis of these findings is a 'material-discursive approach'. Depression is recognized as 'embodied', that is as grounded in the materiality of the body which is immersed in subjective experiences and the social context of women's lives.
Cahn, S. (2003, Spring). Come out, come out whatever you've got! Or, still crazy after all these years.
Feminist Studies, 29(1), 7-18.
Cahn relates her experience in living as a lesbian and describes how she struggled to cope with her chronic fatigue syndrome. Many people see homosexuals as disgusting, sinful, tolerable, abominable, and crazy. Although their is no proof that homosexuality and mental disorder is correlated, many psychiatrists still believe that several mental diseases are caused by homosexuality, and are finding reparative therapies and reconversion programs to treat homosexuals.
Chaplin, T. M., Gillham, J. E., Reivich, K., Elkon, A. G. L., Samuels, B., Freres, D. R., Winder, B., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2006). Depression prevention for early adolescent girls: A pilot study of all girls versus co-ed groups.
The Journal of Early Adolescence, 26(1), 110-126.
Given the dramatic increase in depression that occurs during early adolescence in girls, interventions must address the needs of girls. The authors examined whether a depression prevention program, the Penn Resiliency Program, was more effective for girls in all-girls groups than in co-ed groups. Within co-ed groups, the authors also tested whether there were greater effects for boys than for girls. Participants were 20811-to 14-year-olds. Girls were randomly assigned to all-girls groups, co-ed groups, or control. Boys were assigned to co-ed groups or control. Students completed questionnaires on depressive symptoms, hopelessness, and explanatory style before and after the intervention. Girls groups were better than co-ed groups in reducing girls’ hopelessness and for session attendance rates but were similar to co-ed groups in reducing depressive symptoms. Co-ed groups decreased depressive symptoms, but this did not differ by gender. Findings support prevention programs and suggest additional benefits of girls groups.
Chernomas, W., & Clarke, D. E. (n.d.).
Social support and women living with serious mental illness. Winnipeg, MB: Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence.
This project explored the social support in the lives of women living with schizophrenia. It was designed to build on an initial study, which examined the informational, and support needs as perceived by this population. In the initial study, women indicated there were a limited number of people in their lives. This present study focused on exploring with women their formal and informal sources of support, the kind of support people in their lives provided, and the kind of support women felt was lacking. Women were encouraged to talk about support in the context of their everyday lives, responsibilities, and sense of self, in light of having a serious mental illness. The Executive Summary and a link to the document in PDF is available at
http://www.pwhce.ca/socialSupport.htm Chernomas, W. M., Clarke, D. E., & Chisholm, F. A. (2000). Perspectives of women living with schizophrenia.
Psychiatric Services, 51(12), 1517-1521.
Study examining how women with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder perceive their own daily lives and health needs. Narratives and direct quotations are provided based on five focus groups conducted with a total of 28 community-dwelling women. Topics include work, the experience of stigma and rejection, relationships and intimacy, pregnancy and motherhood, feelings of responsibility for their disability, physical health and interactions with physicians, and hope and spirituality.
Clift, E. (Ed.).
Women's encounters with the mental health establishment: Escaping the Yellow Wallpaper. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.
This unique contemporary anthology of women’s experiential writing shares women’s realities, perceptions, and experiences (positive and negative) within the therapeutic environment. These artistic expressions of personal experience will help women understand their own encounters in a new light. They are also instructive and enlightening for any practitioner working with women in a mental health setting.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s famous short story (included here),
The Yellow Wallpaper, which inspired this title, has come to represent the struggle of contemporary women to be understood by the therapeutic milieu from whom they seek psychological support and psychiatric treatment. An icon of feminist writing, the 1892 story symbolizes affirmation and validation for the female experience regarding mental health and therapy. This anthology, in the spirit of Gilman’s work, gives voice to today’s women so that their own encounters with the mental health establishment can be validating and affirming to others. It will also enlighten those in the helping professions as they extend their services to women in a time of growing need and shrinking resources.
In addition to
The Yellow Wallpaper and a foreword and afterword by noted psychiatric professionals,
Women’s Encouters with the Mental Health Establishment: Escaping the Yellow Wallpaper also contains works by authors including Sylvia Plath, Kate Millett, Anne Sexton, Lauren Slater, Martha Manning, Elayne Clift, and many more.
Through prose and poetry, the contributors to this volume offer a creative, artistic, and highly readable contribution to the literatures of women’s studies and psychology. Visit the author’s website at
http://www.sover.net/~eclift.
Constantinou, S. (1997).
Between the lines [Film]. Boston: Fanlight Productions.
A visually lyrical, experimental documentary about women who cut themselves, this film explores the gray areas in women's relationships to their bodies in the context of deliberately self-inflicted injury. The women in Between the Lines negotiate the fine line between self-destructive behavior and self-preserving coping mechanisms.
Cook, J. A. (2003, June). Depression, disability, and rehabilitation services for women.
Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27(2), 121-129.
The purpose of this paper is to review scientific evidence for the co-occurrence of major depressive illness and disability, and to examine this phenomenon specifically for women in the United States today. Following a discussion of different ways of operationalizing the concept of disability, the analysis addresses gender biases in disability measurement as well as in recent research on depression and functional impairment. Next, the results of research regarding co-occurrence of disability and depression are reviewed, highlighting those studies focused specifically on women. Turning to research on rehabilitation services for those with psychiatric disabilities, studies suggest that service delivery models fail to address needs specific to women with mental illness in general, as well as those women experiencing severe depression. Thus, the analysis concludes with a series of suggestions and future directions for investigators seeking to better understand the linkages between depression, disability, and rehabilitation services for women.
Corbett, C. A. (2003, June). Special issues in psychotherapy with minority Deaf women. In M. E. Banks, & E. Kaschak (Eds.), Women with visible and invisible disabilities: multiple intersections, multiple issues, multiple therapies, Part II [Special issue].
Women & Therapy, 26(3/4), 311-329.
Minority Deaf women have been traditionally underserved by mental health professionals, and specifically, therapists are unaware of issues unique to this population. It would be highly unlikely for a minority Deaf woman to have a therapist who matches her in racial background, hearing status, and communication mode. Therefore, the therapy process will be completely cross-cultural. Therapists who provide psychotherapy services to minority Deaf women need to be aware that their clients are members of a community where deafness is a culture and not a disability. Minority Deaf women are also likely to report feeling forced to choose between competing identities in order to get important needs met. In the following article, case examples are provided which illustrate some of the major issues that are likely to arise in therapy with minority Deaf women. These issues include: access to important information; communication, support and level of involvement with biological families; competing cultural demands; health concerns; and coping with chronic mental illness.
Dangoor, N., & Florian, V. (1994, June). Women with chronic physical disabilities: Correlates of their long-term psychosocial adaptation.
International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, 17(2), 159-168.
This study examined the effects of demographic factors, disability status, and individual internal resources to the long-term psychosocial adjustment of 88 married women with orthopedic, neurological, and internal chronic diseases. Results suggest that sense of coherence and socioeconomic status, rather than disability status variables, accounted most for variance in adaptational outcome.
Danquah, M. A. (1999).
Willow weep for me: A black woman's journey through depression. New York: One World/Ballantine.
This moving memoir of an African-American woman's lifelong fight to identify and overcome depression offers an inspirational story of healing and emergence. Wrapped within Danquah's engaging account of this universal affliction is rare and insightful testimony about what it means to be black, female, and battling depression in a society that often idealizes black women as strong, nurturing caregivers. A startlingly honest, elegantly rendered depiction of depression, Willow Weep for Me calls out to all women who suffer in silence with a life-affirming message of recovery. Meri Danquah rises from the pages, a true survivor, departing a world of darkness and reclaiming her life.
DiClemente, R. J., Wingood, G. M., Lang, G. L., Crosby, R. A., Salazar, L. F., Harrington, K., & Hertzberg, V. S. (2005, July). Adverse health consequences that co-occur with depression: A longitudinal study of black adolescent females.
Pediatrics, 116(1), 78-81.
Objective. The purpose of this study was to identify adverse health consequences that may co-occur with depression among black female adolescents.
Methods. Adolescents were recruited from high-risk neighborhoods in Birmingham, Alabama. The sample comprised 460 black female adolescents (aged 14–18 years) who completed assessments at baseline and at 6 and 12 months. Only adolescents who consistently scored above the threshold for depression at all 3 assessments (n = 76) or below the threshold at all 3 assessments (n = 174) were included (N = 250) in the data analysis. Within this sample, adolescents who were depressed were compared with those who were not depressed with respect to the following health consequences: low self-esteem, emotional abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, poor body image, and antisocial behavior.
Results. Using generalized estimating equations and controlling for covariates, depressed adolescents were 5.3 times more likely to report low self-esteem, 4.3 times more likely to report emotional abuse, 3.7 times more likely to report being physically abused, and almost 3 times as likely to report being verbally abused. Furthermore, depressed adolescents were more than twice as likely to report poor body image and nearly twice as likely to report engaging in antisocial behaviors.
Conclusions. The findings suggest that a broad range of adverse health consequences may accompany depression among black female adolescents. Physicians need to be alert to the co-occurrence of depression and low self-esteem; emotional, physical, and verbal abuse; poor body image; and antisocial behaviors among this population.
Edhborg, M., Friberg, M., Lundh, W., & Widström, A. M. (2005, August). “Struggling with life”: Narratives from women with signs of postpartum depression.
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 33(4), 261-267.
Aim: The aim of this study was to explore and describe how Swedish women with signs of postpartum depression two months postpartum experience the first months with their child.
Method: A grounded theory approach was chosen. Twenty-two women who showed signs of depression, i.e. scored 10 or more on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), were interviewed at an average of 80 days after the delivery.
Results: The new mothers were struggling with life related to the self, the child, and the partner. They expressed feelings of loss of who they are, felt overwhelmed by the responsibility for the child, and were struggling with feelings of abandonment, worries, and breastfeeding problems. They often felt like “bad mothers” but they never blamed the child. Most mothers were reluctant to speak about their feelings and they assigned their depressed mood to personal weakness rather than illness. In relationship to the partner the mothers were struggling to keep their equality in the new situation and to get him involved in childcare.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that depressed feelings postpartum may be explained in terms of losses and changes. However, postpartum depressive symptoms remain hidden and it is important to understand the complexity of postpartum depressive mood, described here as struggling with life related to three different dimensions: the self, the child, and the partner.
Edell, D. (2003, August 25).
Depression and gender stereotypes [Online]. Retrieved March 12, 2005 from
http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/deanfulltexttopics.cfm?ID=60603&storytype=DeanTopics "The media’s coverage of depression has changed dramatically in the age of Prozac. Articles are now far more likely to depict women’s mental issues in relation to gender-stereotyped roles rather than in medical terms. But descriptions of depression in men have not shifted in the same way."
Eleveld, K. L. (2003).
Isn't she lovely [Video]. Boston: Fanlight Productions.
When the filmmaker was twelve, her mother began showing signs of mental illness, but when she was a junior in high school the illness appeared to be stabilizing. Kerry remembers months of visits, to model new outfits and make dinners and cookies together. Then her mother stopped answering the teenager's phone calls. When Kerry went to see her, and demanded that her mother open the door, the response was "I love you, but I can't be with you right now."
"I think I knew," Kerry says fifteen years later, "that she was never coming back." This moving personal documentary is a brave attempt to understand a childhood profoundly affected by a parent's severe mental illness. Kerry's mother, Lynn, was not only a loving mother but a respected social worker, at a time and in a community where women in the professions were not common. Suddenly—or so it seemed to Kerry and her brother Rob—she was behaving strangely and distancing herself from her family. Without warning, she disappeared on a cross-continental odyssey that ended with her first institutionalization. Refusing any kind of "talk therapy," time after time Lynn was able to use her knowledge of the mental health system to avoid long-term institutional care, and she rarely stayed on medication for long.
"Schizoid personality, bipolar type?" "Bipolar disorder with psychotic features?" The filmmaker struggles to reach the person behind the shifting diagnoses, but ultimately has to accept that she "can't fix it." This is less a film about Lynn's mental illness than it is about the courage and resilience that have enabled Kerry and Rob to create independent lives for themselves despite their feelings of loss and abandonment.
Faber, M. (1993).
Delirium [Film]. New York: Women Make Movies.
Taking her mother's mental illness as its point of departure, Mindy Faber's
Delirium exposes the historical relationship between women and madness with wit and sensitivity. Documentary footage of her mother is seamlessly interlaced with experimental, performance and archival images to shed light on the complexity of female hysteria. It shows that it is often women who do not conform to traditional social roles who are labeled "mad" and that women's reactions of violence, anger and depression are frequently not expressions of madness but rather sane responses to abhorrent situations.
Feld, R., Colantonio, A., Yoshida, K., & Odette, F. (2003, August). Mental health and vitality among Canadian women with physical disabilities.
Psychological Reports, 93(1), 75-83.
This study investigated scores for mental health and vitality in a large community-based sample of women with physical disabilities. The scores from two subscales of the SF-36 were collected from 1,096 women with physical disabilities through a mailed survey regarding health and well-being. These scores were compared to normative data using t tests. The mean scores of the vitality subscale were significantly lower than that of the normed sample when analyzed by age groups. The mental health scores were significantly lower as well, except for one age group (65-74 yr.). These results suggest that health care workers should address aspects of mental health and energy when caring for women with physical disabilities, as these areas are often overlooked in this population. Health promotion programs aimed at these topics should be designed specifically for this population as well.
Frick, K. (2002). Women's mental illness: A response to oppression.
Women's Issues Then and Now: A Feminist Overview of the Last 2 Centuries [Online]. Retrieved March 12, 2005 from
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/femhist/madness.shtml.
"Women throughout history have been considered the weaker sex. They are commonly believed to be more susceptible to emotional breakdowns and mental illness as they are deemed to be not as psychologically durable as men. Are women truly a weaker sex mentally, or do we perceive them this way because of patriarchal society and existing stereotypes? Are women fragile or are the breakdowns simply results of years of male domination? I intend to detail and describe women's mental illness during the Victorian era and in today's society in order to explore these questions as I believe women's mental illness has, for the most part, been created by man."
This web site gives a brief history of women and mental illness in the last two centuries. It is part of a site constructed by the Spring 2002 Rhetoric of Anglo-American Feminism class at the University of Texas. They have compiled information on some of the major issues facing women and feminism during the past 200 years, and discussed how the issues have changed over time, and also how they have stayed the same.
Gearon, J. S., Kaltman, S. I., Brown, C., & Bellack, A. S. (2003). Traumatic life events and PTSD among women with substance use disorders and schizophrenia.
Psychiatric Services, 54(4), 523-528.
Study examined the prevalence of traumatic life events and the association between traumatic life events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among women schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and co-occurring substance abuse. Participants were 54 psychiatric outpatients who completed a battery of clinical assessments. Analysis of the data revealed that 96 percent of the sample reported experiencing at least one traumatic life event; the average number of traumatic life events reported was 8. High rates of trauma, particularly physical abuse, and of being abused both as a child and as an adult were reported. PTSD was significantly associated with childhood sexual abuse and revictimization.
Gender and women's mental health. (n.d.). Geneva, Switzerland: World Health International. Retrieved March 12, 2005 from
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/genderwomen/en/ Fact sheet on gender and women's mental health published by WHO. Reviews the facts concerning gender disparities and mental health, women's mental health, gender specific risks, gender bias, and WHO's focus on women's mental health. Other resources concerning gender and mental health from WHO are available at
http://www.who.int/mental_health/resources/gender/en/ Harris, J. (2000). Self-harm: Cutting the bad out of me.
Qualitative Health Research, 10(2), 164-173.
The practice of self-harm is increasing in the United Kingdom, accounting for the highest number of acute medical admissions for women. The medical and nursing response to repeaters, set within a climate of dwindling emergency and accident resources, has been one of impatience, frustration, and hostile care. The author undertook a correspondence study with 6 women who regularly self-harmed. The women claimed that medical and nursing professionals viewed their self-harm as irrational and illogical. However, a qualitative examination of the motivations and interests of all parties reveals that self-harm acts possess situated internal logic, whereas professionals tend to use rational logic in attempting to understand them.
Hebald, C. (2001).
The heart too long suppressed: A chronicle of mental illness. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
The Heart Too Long Suppressed documents, from a personal viewpoint, schizophrenia as an unconscious choice. It is my aim that readers might recognize similar choices in themselves, or in loved ones, who have succumbed to the seeming certainty that there are none.
In tracking the development of my former illness from infancy through middle age, I place within a historical context my and my helpers’ errors in judgment. I pinpoint what went wrong. What is the meaning of schizophrenia? To answer I re-enter the experience and clarify in human terms those “dissociative states of being” and “splits between mind and feeling” by which we are clinically defined. Is there really a private world peculiar to schizophrenics? In taking the reader through mine, I show an inner world of dream and desire at odds with an outer world of fact and experience common to us all. For what did I earn my label? How and why did I inadvertently court it? By what means did I get well? Answers to these questions point to my contribution to the field.
I am not the first ex-patient to report that conditions in most psychiatric hospitals are breeding grounds for the eruption of psychotic behavior, but I hope to be among the last. To this end I address their ideal purpose as havens for the release of intolerable and so-called inappropriate feelings.
Finally, I question the widely-held belief that schizophrenia is a brain disease. Hospital records indicate no biomedical condition underlay mine. I am an exception, others exist. Why, despite us, is the international psychiatric community so eager to embrace this latest “definitive” theory? Is it because it lets them, patient families who foot their bills, and patients themselves, off the hook insofar as responsibility for the illness is concerned? This implicit, if not explicit, question lies at the heart of my book.
Hewitt, K. (2006, Winter). Women and madness: Teaching mental illness as a disability. In T. Meade & D. Serlin (Eds.), Disability and history [Special issue].
Radical History Review, 94, 155-169.
"When I first designed a class titled 'Women and Madness,' my primary goal was to synthesize my interests in the history of mental illness and gender issues and offer a course that would attract students to an important and controversial historical topic. I was aware that even though race, class, and gender had become important topics in history and cultural studies programs, few academic programs study people marginalized by disability. Even scholars in the field of disability studies seem reluctant to approach mental illness. The rare extant courses about cultural components of mental illness often reside in programs addressing the history of medicine, or in women’s studies programs. Gender easily functions as the inroad to discuss interactions between the body and culture and hegemonic definitions of normal, and as I designed the course, a rich history of women and psychiatry and a broad range of autobiographical texts allowed me to choose among myriad topics" (p. 156).
Hiersteiner, C. (1999). Viewing a mental health service maze from the inside out: Women clients share their stories.
Women & Therapy, 22(4), 89-105.
The purpose of this qualitative inquiry is to describe the experiences of women who have been long-term consumers of mental health services and to understand the meaning and quality of care from their inside point of view. The American mental health service system might be better described as a maze or as a ‘‘non-system,’’ requiring important maneuvering skills on the part of clients. Women are the largest consumer group of mental health services and, due to their contextual, person-in-environment thinking, are expert observers of the people and processes in a network designed to help with psychological and emotional distress. Social justice ethics support the recording of their stories, historically suppressed and marginalized, and call for system-wide collaboration and cooperation on their behalf.
High, K. (1989).
I need your full cooperation [Film]. New York: Women Make Movies.
This fascinating video chronicles the relationship between women and the medical institution using experimental techniques. Critical commentary is provided by feminist scholars Barbara Ehrenreich and Carroll Smith-Rosenberg. Archival footage from educational and Hollywood films reveals the persistent image of male doctors' control of female patients. Finally, a dramatization of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's classic story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," illustrates the use of the "rest cure" to quell the emancipatory urges of upper class white women in the 1890s, an era in which female sexuality and reproductive capacity were identified with illness.
Holt, G. (Ed.). (2004, October). Women with learning disabilities and mental health [Feature issue].
Tizard Learning Disability Review, 9(4).
In May 2002 a conference, Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Women with Learning Disability, was held at Guy's Hospital [UK], a joint venture between the Judith Trust and the Estia Centre, Guy's. The aim was to enable discussion of the importance of good mental health for everyone, for good services for those who become mentally ill and for these services to be sensitive to the particular needs of women with learning disabilities.
Holte, M. C., & Dinis, M. C. (2001). Self-esteem enhancement in deaf and hearing women: Success stories.
American Annals of the Deaf, 146(4), 348-354.
Report examines factors affecting self-esteem in women who are deaf or hard of hearing. Nine deaf and 14 hearing women participated in in-depth interviews to generate themes to describe their self-esteem and how they have enhance their own self-esteem. Eight themes emerged from the data, 5 of which are common to both groups of women. Deaf women were more likely to report education as a factor in enhancing self-esteem. Deaf women also cited language and communication as critical to self-esteem enhancement; this was not mentioned by the hearing women.
Hommel, K. A., Wagner, J. L., Chaney J. M., & Mullins L. L. (1998, July). Gender-specific effects of depression on functional disability in rheumatoid arthritis: A prospective study.
International Journal of Rehabilitation and Health, 4(3), 183-191.
We examined the prospective impact of depression on objective ratings of disability as a function of gender in a sample of persons with rheumatoid arthritis. Forty-two individuals from an outpatient rheumatology clinic completed measures of depression, disability, and pain over the course of 1 year. A physician's assistant completed objective measures of functional disability following a routine physical examination. Results demonstrated a significant main effect for gender on Time 2 objective ratings of disability (after controlling for disease variables and self-report indices of pain and disability), indicating that physician assistants rated female participants as more disabled than male participants. Importantly, the interaction of gender and Time 1 depression contributed significant variance to Time 2 disability. Findings suggest that women, relative to men, may experience greater declines in functional capacity over time, independent of self-perceptions of pain and disability, and that depression plays a significant role in this process. Discussion focuses on treatment considerations for health care teams, with particular focus on women's adjustment of to RA.
Houston, R. A. (2002, September). Madness and gender in the long eighteenth century.
Social History, 27(3), 309-326.
The article uses a wide range of archival and literary sources to examine perceptions of mental incapacity. It looks first at what quantifiable measures may and may not tell us about the nature of madness in eighteenth-century Scotland and about the relationship between pathologies and the 'normal' structures of society. It seeks to test a common assumption or assertion that 'madness is a female malady because it is experienced by more women than men' (Showalter). It further questions whether those with mental problems were really just the victims of an oppressive (professional and male) form of discourse by offering a nuanced analysis of the social context in which mental disability was identified. The second half of the article explores certain qualitative aspects of how insanity was construed by the sane, in order to assess the extent of gendering in the day-to-day understanding of mental problems. These aspects include the connections between madness and issues such as emotion, language, class, suicide, alcohol and 'work'.
Houston, R. A. (2004, January). Class, gender and madness in eighteenth century Scotland.
Clio Medica/The Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine, 73(1), 45-68.
This chapter uses a wide range of qualitative and quantitative sources from eighteenth-century Scotland to ask whether identifying someone as mad was an arbitrary means of exerting power over them. Separate sections analyse the effect of gender and class on the constructions of mental disability. The conclusion is that rather than providing evidence of a crude bourgeois and/or male conspiracy, understandings of mental incapacity reveal in a subtle and nuanced way the nature and extent of distinctions between people based on their social status, age, occupation and sex.
Hubert, S. J. (2002).
Questions of power: The politics of women's madness narratives. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
Questions of Power: The Politics of Women's Madness Narratives explores the ways in which women have used autobiographical writing in response to psychiatric symptoms and treatment. By addressing health and healing from the patient's perspective, the study raises questions about psychiatric practice and mental health policy. The ultimate thesis is that autobiographies by women psychiatric patients can expose many of the problems in psychiatric treatment and indicate directions for change.
Husaini, B. A., Sherkat, D. E., Levine, R., Bragg, R., Holzer, C., Anderson, K., Cain, V., & Moten, C. (2002). Race, gender, and health care service utilization and costs among Medicare elderly with psychiatric diagnoses.
Journal of Aging and Health, 14(1), 79-95.
Objective: To investigate race and gender differences in health care service utilization and costs among the Medicare elderly with psychiatric diagnoses.
Methods: The authors employ a 5% sample of Medicare beneficiaries from Tennessee (N =33, 680), and among those with a psychiatric diagnosis (n =5, 339), they examine health care service utilization and costs by race and gender.
Results: African Americans had significantly higher rates of diagnosis for dementia, organic psychosis, and schizophrenia, whereas Whites had significantly higher rates for mood and anxiety disorders. White and African American men have higher rates of utilization of emergency and inpatient services and lower rates of outpatient utilization compared to White women and African American women. African American men have significantly higher health care costs.
Discussion: The findings suggest that race and gender interact to influence service utilization and preventive care, thereby driving up costs of care, for elderly persons with psychiatric diagnoses.
Jonikas, J. A., Laris, A., & Cook, J. A. (2003, Fall). The passage to adulthood: Psychiatric rehabilitation service and transition-related needs of young adult women with emotional and psychiatric disorders. In C. T. Mowbray (Ed.), Women and Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practice [Special section].
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 27(2), 114-121.
Literature review examines the needs and experiences of young adult women, aged 16 to 21, who have a diagnosis of serious emotional disturbance or mental illness, as they transition into adulthood. Review includes research on mental health needs of young adults with depressive disorder, bipolar disorders, adolescent schizophrenia and other psychotic disorder, and substance abuse disorders. Authors also examined research on transition-related needs and outcomes of female youth, including relationships with family and peers, abuse and trauma, academic performance, independent living, and employment.
Joseph, D. (1993).
Deaf female clients give voice: A feminist perspective and counseling implications. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Union Institute, Chicago, IL.
A dearth of research exists in the field of counseling related to deafness. Especially scant are studies from the perspective of the deaf clients, particularly women. This research used Patton's (1986) Utilization-focused Evaluation to collect qualitative data from prospective deaf female clients and to assess current and future services provided at a Deaf Service Center in Pinellas County, Florida. Invested stakeholders were identified and joined as cc-evaluators from the onset of planning this study through the analysis of its data. Their issues and concerns were assimilated into a questioning route and presented to two separate focus groups for discussion. The attempt was not to prove hypotheses but to gather as much data as possible from a variety of women participants as the results could provide for a multileveled analysis and serve as a springboard to further discussions. The focus groups consisted of prospective deaf female clients, one group targeted women younger than the age of 50, another targeted women older than the age of 50. For each group there was a total of three focused group interviews of one to one and a half hours each. The participants were asked to share opinions on a variety of issues related to mental health services. A richness of information was discussed through the natural setting and social interaction present in these groups. The women participants found current services favorable, prefer specific characteristics in their counselors, and desire future services to emphasize quality and privacy. Recommendations urge educational counseling to occur in many areas. Service providers are reminded to combine the cultural and linguistic context of deaf women with their oppressive history when working toward empowerment. The women of this study expressed internal experiences, shared their previously unseen worlds, and hoped to contribute more data to this growing field of research.
Kamm-Steigelman, L., Kimble, L. P., Dunbar, S., Sowell, R. L., & Bairan, A. (2006, February/March). Religion, relationships and mental health in midlife women following acute myocardial infarction. In C. L. Coleman (Ed.), Spiritual and religious activities: Implications for improving mental health [Special issue].
Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 27(2), 141-159.
Little is known about coping in women following an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In midlife, women have worse outcomes than men following AMI. Innovative interventions need to be developed that respond to these women's unique recovery needs. In this correlational, descriptive study, 59 women aged 35–64 who had experienced AMI reported low satisfaction with life and decreased mental health; 49% were experiencing depression. However, they also reported that religion, family, and friends provided strength and comfort at the time of their AMI. Greater activation of simple, family-oriented, coping resources during recovery may be key. It is recommended that mental health nurses be essential members of the recovery planning team.
Kennedy, C. (1997). Mental health, disabilities, and women: A policy-oriented data review. In K. F. Schriner, S. N. Barnartt, & B. M. Altman, (Eds.), Disabled women and public policy: Where we’ve been, where we’re going [Special issue].
Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 8(1&2), 129-156.
Discusses policy considerations related to the special needs of women who are disabled by mental illness; describes the four data sets on which the article is based; US. 1994 Disability Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS); 1992 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS); Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs of the US Social Security Administration; Disability-Adjusted Life Years, (DALYs), an international measure developed for a study sponsored by Harvard University, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Killen, A. (2003). From shock to Schreck: Psychiatrists, telephone operators and traumatic neurosis in Germany, 1900-26.
Journal of Contemporary History, 38(2), 201-220.
This article examines the debates surrounding the clinical diagnosis 'traumatic neurosis' in the context of interactions between psychiatrists and female switchboard operators. It traces these debates from the turn of the century, when these women first began receiving extensive medical attention for their nervous and hysterical disorders, up until 1926, when the nation's accident insurance laws were revised to disqualify traumatic neurosis as a compensatable condition. Along with war neurotics, operators played a central role in the medical recasting of traumatic neurosis from legitimate illness into pseudo-illness.
Koss-Chioino, J. D. (1999). Depression among Puerto Rican women: Culture, etiology, and diagnosis.
Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 21(3), 330-350.
As in most of the societies that have been studied, more than twice the number of Puerto Rican women compared to men suffer from diagnosed depression. The aim of this article is to examine depression in women in Puerto Rico from epidemiological, etiological, and especially, experiential perspectives. This study includes a comparison of women's complaints around negative mood states in cases within the public mental health system and equivalent cases encountered within a traditional healing system, espiritismo. Several general questions are raised concerning the effect on the etiology of depression of cultural constructions regarding female roles and statuses, reproductive events, and negative life events in general, as well as the value of closely examining the experience of depressed women relative to standard diagnostic assessments in mental health care.
Light, A. (1993).
Dialogues with madwomen [Film]. New York: Women Make Movies.
"I was always so afraid that someone would ask me (where I was when JFK was shot), and I would have to say I was in a mental institution", says director Allie Light. This moving and informative film features seven women--including the filmmaker--describing their experiences with manic depression, multiple personalities, schizophrenia, euphoria and recovery. Candid interviews are enriched with dramatic reenactments and visualizations of each woman's history, emotions, and dreams--the private symbols of madness and sanity. The social dimensions of women and mental illness are revealed in testimony about sexual assault, incest, racism and homophobia, the abuses of the medical establishment, family, and church. Acknowledging that "madness" is often a way of explaining women's self-expression, this film charges us to listen to the creativity and courage of survivors.
Little, L. (Ed.). (1999).
Spotlight 16: Depressed moms & child development. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, National Center for Early Development & Learning (NCEDL). Retrieved March 18, 2005 from
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~ncedl/PDFs/spot16.pdf This short document contains excerpts from a study reported in the September, 1999 issue of
Developmental Psychology on the effects of mothers’ depression on children. The study, carried out by the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, is a longitudinal study following more than 1,200 children and families from 10 locations around the US. Begun in 1991, it is one of the most comprehensive on-going child care studies in the nation.
Lunsky, Y. (2003, September). Depressive symptoms in intellectual disability: Does gender play a role?
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 47(6), 417-427.
Background: Gender issues remain largely unaddressed in the dual diagnosis arena, even in the area of depression where there is a 2 : 1 female to male ratio in the general population. This paper argues that women with intellectual disability (ID) report higher levels of depressive symptoms than men with ID and that risk factors for depression identified for women in the general population are relevant to this group.
Method: Findings are based on structured interviews with 99 men and women with ID, with corroborative information provided from caregivers and casebook reviews.
Results: Overall, women reported higher levels of depression than men. Individuals with higher depression scores were more lonely and had higher stress levels than individuals with lower scores. Women with higher depression scores were more likely to report coming from abusive situations, to have poor social support from family and to be unemployed when compared to women with lower scores, but similar differences were not found when comparing men with higher and lower depression scores.
Conclusion: Men and women who report experiencing these psychosocial correlates of depression should be a target group for future prevention efforts, taking gender specific concerns into consideration.
Metzl, J. M. (2003).
Prozac on the couch: Prescribing gender in the era of wonder drugs. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Pills replaced the couch; neuroscience took the place of talk therapy; and as psychoanalysis faded from the scene, so did the castrating mothers and hysteric spinsters of Freudian theory. Or so the story goes. In
Prozac on the Couch, psychiatrist Jonathan Michel Metzl boldly challenges recent psychiatric history, showing that there’s a lot of Dr. Freud encapsulated in late-twentieth-century psychotropic medications. Providing a cultural history of treatments for depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses through a look at the professional and popular reception of three "wonder drugs"—Miltown, Valium, and Prozac—Metzl explains the surprising ways Freudian gender categories and popular gender roles have shaped understandings of these drugs.
Prozac on the Couch traces the notion of "pills for everyday worries" from the 1950s to the early twenty-first century, through psychiatric and medical journals, popular magazine articles, pharmaceutical advertisements, and the popular autobiographical "Prozac narratives." Metzl shows how clinical and popular talk about these medications often reproduces all the cultural and social baggage associated with psychoanalytic paradigms—whether in a 1956 Cosmopolitan article about research into tranquilizers to "cure" frigid women; a 1970s
American Journal of Psychiatry and introducing Jan, a lesbian who "needs" Valium to find a man; or Peter Kramer’s description of how his patient "Mrs. Prozac" meets her husband after beginning treatment.
Prozac on the Couch locates the origins of psychiatry’s "biological revolution" not in the Valiumania of the 1970s but in American popular culture of the 1950s. It was in the 1950s, Metzl points out, that traditional psychoanalysis had the most sway over the American imagination. As the number of Miltown prescriptions soared (reaching 35 million, or nearly one per second, in 1957) advertisements featuring uncertain brides and unfaithful wives miraculously cured by the "new" psychiatric medicines filled popular magazines. Metzl writes without nostalgia for the bygone days of Freudian psychoanalysis and without contempt for psychotropic drugs, which he himself regularly prescribes to his patients. What he urges is an increased self-awareness within the psychiatric community of the ways that Freudian ideas about gender are entangled in Prozac and each new generation of wonder drugs. He encourages, too, an understanding of how ideas about psychotropic medications have suffused popular culture and profoundly altered the relationship between doctors and patients.
Milliken, P. J. (2001, January-February). Disenfranchised mothers: Caring for an adult child with schizophrenia.
Health Care for Women International, 22(1-2), 149-166.
Interviews with 29 parent caregivers of adult children with schizophrenia discovered that they periodically redefine their parental role over the course of the family member's illness. A grounded theory of "redefining parental identity" is briefly reviewed. As the child's schizophrenia develops, parents come to regard themselves as disenfranchised. That is, although parents assume the right to take on responsibility for their family member, neither the legal system, mental health practitioners, nor often the ill persons themselves recognize that right. Particularly for the 16 mothers who tend to be the primary family caregivers, this lack of parental rights negatively affects their caregiving experience, especially as regards their caregiver stress, their experience of guilt and grief, and ultimately their own health.
Miles, A. (1991).
The neurotic woman: The role of gender in psychiatric illness. New York: New York University Press.
This is a British study on the influence of gender on mental illness. It is based on interviews with 65 women and 20 men who were referred to outpatient psychiatric treatment for a variety of neurotic-level disorders. The book provides an overview of the major theoretical approaches to mental illness and feminist application of these approaches. The author uses these theoretical approaches to interpret the interview material and focuses on issues such as social support, stigma, work within the home and outside the home, and how people responded to the treatment they are given. The study focuses on how these people experience and interpret their lives, their mental problems, and the treatment. Many of the chapters explore the differences or similarities between the experiences of men and women. The author describes many of the women as distressed and overburdened caretakers of family members who are ill or have disabilities, and sometimes links improvement in their psychological status to changes in their caretaking role.
Morris, C. (1997). Mental health matters: Toward a non-medicalized approach to psychotherapy with women.
Women & Therapy, 20(3), 63-77.
This article discusses the epistemological biases and therapeutic risks of overly-medicalized and deterministic approaches to women’s psychological problems. Constructivist and feminist perspectives are used to illuminate the essentially political enterprise of naming psychological distress, and to argue the necessity of feminist theories of psychotherapy. These too, however, must be critically examined for deterministic assumptions which emphasize pathology or victimization, thereby limiting recognition of women’s agency, and capacity for resistance and change. One alternative model is Adler’s Individual Psychology. This humanistic approach is neither medicalized nor deterministic, assumes human freedom and purposefulness, emphasizes the dialectic interaction of the individual and society, and is philosophically committed to gender equality.
Mowbray, C. T., Lanir, S., & Hulce, M. (Eds.). (1985).
Women and mental health: New directions for change. New York: Harrington Park Press.
This book is written by the Women's Task Force of the Department of Mental Health in the State of Michigan. The book examines sex differences in mental health problems and sexist treatment by mental health agencies. The focus of the book is twofold. First, "To present the most relevant, up-to-date data and factual evidence on women's mental health problems, causes, and treatment" (p. 2). Second, "To present recommended changes and alternatives for improving prevention and treatment of women's mental health problems" (p. 3).
The book outlines a feminist perspective which takes into account the specific and different needs of women and men and challenges the traditional view that typically defines the woman as "the patient" and "the problem." Instead, it is argued that what is commonly labelled "pathology" in women patients by state agencies is often women's desperate response to highly stressful situations like loss of financial support, physical abuse, and martial problems.
The materials in this book were originally published as a special double issue of the feminist quarterly,
Women & Therapy (Volume 3, Numbers 3/4, Fall/Winter 1984). The book contains a wealth of information about women and mental health and should be of interest to anyone looking for materials about sexism in mental health practices.
Mowbray, C. T., Bybee D., Hollingsworth L., Goodkind, S., & Oyserman, D. (2005, March). Living arrangements and social support: Effects on the well-being of mothers with mental illness.
Social Work Research, 29(1), 41-55.
This article examines the effects of living arrangements on the well-being of mothers with a serious mental illness. Analyses of data from a National Institute of Mental Health-funded study of an urban, primarily African American sample of 379 mothers with mental illness revealed few differences in parenting or social functioning between mothers living with their children and a spouse or partner and those living with their children only. However, mothers living with their children and extended family had significantly better outcomes than women in the other two living arrangements. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that living with relatives significantly related to mothers' well-being (social functioning and parenting) above and beyond relatives' provision of social support. Multilevel modeling revealed racial differences in the effects of living with relatives on functioning and parenting stress: Effects were positive for African American mothers but mixed for white American mothers.
Mowbray, C. T., Nicholson, J., & Bellamy, C. D. (2003). Psychosocial rehabilitation services needs of women.
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 27(2), 104-113.
Article discusses ways to identify and respond to the needs of women receiving psychosocial rehabilitation services. The differences between men and women with psychiatric illness are described regarding diagnosis, substance abuse, victimization, physical health problems, and receipt of service. The special service needs of women may include additional areas of training in substance-use, relationship, basic survival, communication, stress management, self-help group, vocational/educational, and peer support/counseling skills. Methods to address the rehabilitation needs of women with psychiatric disabilities are presented.
Nicholson, J., & Henry, A. D. (2003). Achieving the goal of evidence-based psychiatric practices for mothers with mental illnesses.
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 27(2), 122-130.
Article presents the rationale for standardized interventions that have been shown to improve outcomes for mothers with psychiatric disorders, as measured objectively in research conducted by independent investigators. Suggestions for relevant interventions are derived from the recommendations of mothers with a mental illness, generic parent intervention models, interventions specifically developed for mothers with a mental illness, and evidence-based practices proven effective with adults with mental illness. The value of a psychiatric rehabilitation approach and the challenges inherent in documenting and testing interventions are discussed.
Nicki, A. (2001, Fall). The abused mind: Feminist theory, psychiatric disability, and trauma. In E. Kittay, S. Silvers, & S. Wendell (Eds.), (2001, Fall). Special issue: Feminism and disability.
Hypatia, 16(4), 80-104.
"I show how much psychiatric disability is informed by trauma, marginalization, sexist norms, social inequalities, concepts of irrationality and normalcy, oppositional mind-body dualism, and mainstream moral values. Drawing on feminist discussion of physical disability, I present a feminist theory of psychiatric disability that serves to liberate not only those who are psychiatrically disabled but also the mind and moral consciousness restricted in their ranges of rational possibilities."
Nicki, A. (2002, October). Feminist philosophy of disability, care ethics and mental illness.
Nursing Philosophy, 3(3), 270-273.
Thought-provoking critique of feminist philosophy of disability, especially how it focuses more on physical disabilities rather than mental disabilities.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Keita, G. P. (Eds.). (2003, June). Women and depression [Special section].
Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27(2).
Although women's 2 to 1 likelihood of developing a depressive disorder is a well-established fact, research over the last decade has expanded our knowledge of risk factors and issues of treatment and service delivery. The American Psychological Association convened an interdisciplinary Summit in 2000 on Women and Depression to examine these findings and to make recommendations on future research and policy needs, and to highlight treatment implications. This special section contains five articles from the Summit addressing a range of issues, including the relationship between women's depression and their lesser power and status in society (resulting in physical and sexual abuse and poverty), and the menstrual cycle and depression. Additionally, the special section includes articles on the rehabilitation of women with depression and treatment of depressed women in primary care settings.
For more information, the document, Summit on Women and Depression: Proceedings and Recommendations, can be accessed online at
www.apa.org/pi/wpo/womendepression.pdf.
Nosek, M. A., & Hughes, R. B. (2001, January/February/March). Psychospiritual aspects of sense of self in women with physical disabilities.
Journal of Rehabilitation, 67(1), 20-25.
This paper reviews findings on sense of self and spirituality that have emerged in several of the studies conducted by the Center for Research on Women with Disabilities. It presents a review of literature on self-esteem, self in connection to others, and self-efficacy, and describes findings from two qualitative and one quantitative study of these constructs in women with disabilities. Discussion leads to the hypothesis that the sense of self in connection to others is a fundamental determinant of self-esteem, and that self-efficacy, when perceived as a power drawn from a divine source, is an important mechanism used to transcend the challenges to both that often accompany disability.
Nosek, M. A., & Hughes, R. B. (2003, June 1). Psychosocial issues of women with physical disabilities: The continuing gender debate.
Rehabilitation Counseling Bulleting, 46(1), 224-233.
Rehabilitation and disability-related research has only recently begun to examine the complex interaction of gender and disability. Women with disabilities experience the double impact of being female and disabled. As women, they have greater risks of psychosocial health problems than do men. As persons with disabilities, they may be even more vulnerable to these gender disparities; for example, compared to women in general, women with disabilities report higher rates of depression and stress. This article describes a new and promising body of research. We offer evidence that corrects any misunderstandings held by rehabilitation specialists that the psychosocial experiences of women with disabilities can be explained by research conducted on men with disabilities or women in general. Clinically and empirically based gender-driven recommendations are offered for research and practice.
Nosek, M. A., Hughes, R. B., Swedlund, N., Taylor, H. B., & Swank P. (2003, April). Self-esteem and women with disabilities.
Social Science & Medicine, 56(8), 1737-1747.
This study examines the sense of self of women with physical disabilities in terms of self-esteem, self-cognition (perceptions of how others see them), and social isolation. It was hypothesized that these variables mediate the relation of precursor variables (age, education, severity of disability, and childhood experiences, including overprotection, familial affection, and school environment) and outcomes (intimacy, employment, and health promoting behaviors). Data were gathered from a sample of 881 community-dwelling women in the USA, 475 with a variety of mild to severe physical disabilities, and 406 without disabilities. Correlation analyses indicated that the women with disabilities had significantly lower self-cognition and self-esteem, and greater social isolation than the women without disabilities, as well as significantly less education, more overprotection during childhood, poorer quality of intimate relationships, and lower rates of salaried employment. Path analysis indicated that each of the sense of self mediators was significantly related to the outcome of intimacy, that both social isolation and self-esteem were significantly related to health promoting behaviors, and that only self-esteem was significantly related to employment. Respondents who were older, less disabled, less educated, less over-protected, and had more affection shown in the home tended to feel that others saw them more positively. Women with positive school environments, less over-protection, and more affection in the home experienced less social isolation; age, education, and disability severity were not significantly related to social isolation. Older respondents with less disability, a more positive school environment, less over-protection, and more affection in the home tended to have greater self-esteem; education was not significantly related to self-esteem. Older respondents tended to report less intimacy. Younger, more educated, and less disabled respondents were significantly more likely to be employed. More highly educated respondents reported engaging in more health promoting behaviors.
O’Toole, C. J., & Brown, A. A. (2002, December). No reflection in the mirror: Challenges for disabled lesbians accessing mental health services.
Journal of Lesbian Studies, 7(1), 35-49.
Lesbians with disabilities have atypical life experiences--they are virtually invisible within the mainstream culture. Both women with disabilities and lesbians experience societal, familial and economic pressures that directly impact their lives and the range of options available to them. When a lesbian is also a woman with a disability, the combination of these pressures has important mental health implications. This article explores the issues and barriers related to disabled lesbians accessing mental health services. Because no systematic research on the mental health needs and experiences of lesbians with disabilities exists, it is unknown how many of them are in need of, access, or are denied appropriate mental health services. The little research that exists on the mental health needs of women with disabilities has either excluded or ignored the particular experiences associated with lesbian identity. Likewise, lesbian mental health research has historically overlooked disabled women's identity and experiences. Shared experiences and other similarities, such as discriminatory attitudes in the health service system, social stigma, and self-devaluation, are discussed within the context of disabled lesbians' compounded risk for mental health problems. Service access and barriers, key therapeutic issues, and cultural competency are discussed as additional issues that emerge when addressing mental health services. We also examine how lesbians with disabilities have proactively networked, caring for each other through informal supports within their communities, and have creatively developed their own strategies and resources. The paper concludes with a discussion of new efforts toward gaining visibility, successful strategies for mental health practitioners in addressing issues and challenges associated with providing care to lesbians with disabilities, and recommendations for further research.
Palmer, C. J. (2003). Body mass index, self-esteem, and suicide risk in clinically depressed African American and white American females.
Journal of Black Psychology, 29(4), 408-428.
Self-esteem and depression, as well as depression and body mass index (BMI), have consistently been found to be significantly associated for African American and White American females. The results are dissimilar when BMI and self-esteem are studied. Historically, the relationship between BMI and self-esteem is weak or nonexistent for African American females; however, for White American females, the relationship is usually significant. The goal of this study was to determine whether clinically depressed, healthy-weight, overweight, and obese females would differ significantly on self-esteem and suicide risk measures. In a voluntary hospital-based inpatient psychiatric unit, 165 clinically depressed females completed the self-esteem rating scale and the suicide risk scale. Healthy-weight, overweight, and obese African American females did not differ significantly on measures of self-esteem and suicide risk. However, depressed, obese White American females had significantly lower self-esteem and increased suicide risk than depressed healthy-weight and overweight White American females. Implications of the current results are discussed.
Pentland, W., Miscio, G., Eastabrook, S., & Krupia, T. (2003). Aging women with schizophrenia.
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 26(3), 290-302.
Article presents findings of a study that examined the experiences of aging women with schizophrenia, their perceived concerns and issues, and how they cope with aging. All of the participants reported feeling that their lives have improved with age, despite traumatic losses and suffering in the past and physical declines that currently make doing things harder. The women expressed that life is better because they have fewer responsibilities, their schizophrenia is improving, and they understand themselves better. Major concerns expressed were their future mental and physical health, and who will care for them if they get sick. The women developed numerous coping strategies that help them deal with their symptoms as well as support from family and friends, health care professionals and medication, their lodging home and its staff, and community health services.
Pickens, J. M. (2003, March). Formal and informal social networks of women with serious mental illness.
Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 24(2), 109-127.
The case study method was used to describe formal and informal social networks of four women with serious mental illness and to capture what happens in network interactions. Supportive roles were identified, with significant overlap between roles performed by formal and informal network members. In contrast to many studies, this study's participants all showed reciprocity in relationships. Network relationships, while supportive, often were conflicted. Themes related to stability of relationships were identified. Practice recommendations include recognition of each person's "context" apart from his or her illness and the importance of capitalizing on positive factors within the person's life context. Further research is needed to identify confirming and contradictory findings.
Porter, R. (1987). Mad women. In R. Porter (Ed.),
A social history of madness: The world through the eyes of the insane (pp. 103 124). New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
This chapter on "mad women" is in a book that explores the lives of "mad people" as they themselves recorded them. Much of the history of madness has focused on medicine or psychiatry. This book is different in that it attempts to explore the thoughts and feelings of mad people from earlier centuries and is based on their autobiographical writings. In the chapter on mad women the author reflects upon autobiographical writings by women and much of the chapter centers around madness and women's gender roles. The author is critical of traditional psychiatry and points out, among other things, that liberationalist psychiatry does not seem to have had a desire to free women from traditional gender roles.
Posen, J., Moore, O., Tassa, D. S., Ginzburg, K., Drory, M., & Giladi, N. (2000). Young women with PD: A group work experience.
Social Work in Health Care, 32(1), 77-91.
Parkinson's Disease (PD) affects between 5-10% of the PD population prior to the age of 40. The psychosocial changes that patients with early PD encounter may be more devastating and disabling than the actual motor disability. The paper describes a unique experience in group work with young female PD patients treated in the Movement Disorders Unit of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. The paper focuses on the special issues which characterized this group's experience: stigma, body and sexual image, and personality traits.
Proctor, G. (2001, May). Listening to older women with dementia: Relationships, voices and power.
Disability & Society, 16(3), 361-376.
Four older women with dementia were interviewed about their experiences of their services. People with dementia are rarely asked for their opinions or judged to be fully legitimate persons. Gaps in previous research concerning people with dementia is presented, with respect to listening to people with dementia themselves and with respect to gender issues. The present study is described and the methodology for analysis, Brown and Gilligan's Voice Relational Method, is presented. This method was developed to listen to adolescent girls and has been used to listen to the voices of others who are disempowered in society. Its focus on relationships and issues of power was useful in this study. The methodology is presented in the context of debates within feminist and disability research. The results of the interviews are discussed, particularly with respect to power in the women's relationships, and particularly the relationships between the women with dementia and medical staff. Some implications of these power issues are presented and recommendations are made.
Ramsay, R., Welch, S., & Youard, E. (2001, March). Needs of women patients with mental illness.
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 7(2), 85-92.
"Women patients suffer from a range of mental disorders similar to those that men may experience. However, there are some striking differences in the prevalence of specific disorders, and in their presentation and management. Some mental illnesses only occur in women. It seems that women patients may have a different experience of treatment, a consequence of differences in their needs and also of the way that health professionals perceive those needs. These differences are embedded in the wider cultural milieu in which we live. There are particular issues for women patients in relation to, for example, childhood sexual abuse, rape and domestic violence. At present, tools to measure needs of individual patients are generally not gender specific."
Reeves, J. (1993).
Chronic and other films [Video]. New York: Women Make Movies.
This collection of films from emerging filmmaker Jennifer Reeves includes
The Girl's Nervy,
Monsters in the Closet, and
Chronic. Innovative, perceptive, and powerful, each challenges filmic conventions.
The Girl's Nervy is a cut and paste study of the single frame and the eye's rhythms.
Monsters in the Closet links stories of little girls and girl gangs with tales from the closet of adolescence.
Chronic is an experimental narrative of one young woman living with "so-called" mental illness. Beautiful and skillful, it probes her misogynistic and violent surroundings for the motives behind her compulsive self-mutilation.
Reece, J. (2005, July). The language of cutting: Initial reflections on a study of the experiences of self-injury in a group of women and nurses.
Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 26(6), 561-574.
Non-suicidal self-injury is a distressing act, which can arouse dissent and negative comment in service users and providers. The purpose of the study was to describe how women who self-injure and nurses assign meaning to shared discourses about self-injury. The wider study is framed in a grounded theory methodology. Fourteen qualified nurses and 11 women who have self-injured were interviewed using unstructured and initially open-ended interviews, lasting 45–90 minutes. Initially a thematic analysis was used to code data. In this report, three of the early themes are reported with some comparative interpretations. Nurses lack understanding of the meanings of cutting behaviour. A common language is needed if nurses are to be effective in helping women who have self-injured to express distress in less damaging ways.
Rice, D. (1999).
Daughter of suicide [film]. New York: Women Make Movies.
"
Daughter of Suicide is the story of my journey, but it reflects the journey of many other survivors of suicide in the United States. I provide pieces to one woman's complex puzzle of memories, ideas, emotions and facts and in doing so explore issues that are repeated time and time again in the lives of people who take their own lives. I, like many survivors of suicide, have realized that my connection to my mother is through friends and family and through my memories of my young childhood before my mother became ill. In getting to know her through the making of the film, I have also realized just how great the loss of life to suicide is. I will never know the woman I discovered making this film, but I hope that her story will help others to recognize the dangers of depression in themselves and in the people they love."
A detailed synopsis and study guide is available at
http://www.daughterone.net/dosTheFilm.html Rosefield, S. (2003, June). Gender stratification, stress, and mental illness. In A. Maney & J. Ramos (Eds.),
Socioeconomic conditions, stress and mental disorders:
Toward a new synthesis of research and public policy. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Retrieved March 13, 2005 from
http://www.mhsip.org/pdfs/rosenfield.pdf "The search for… social positions and experiences [of women vs. men] is the subject of this analysis. Major institutions, such as the workplace and the family, shape social roles and experiences. Stratified by gender, these institutions produce different stresses for males and females and differential access to social and personal resources. Furthermore, such gender inequalities are reproduced through differential socialization of males and females. Childhood socialization shapes core dimensions of the self that are consistent with adult social roles and positions. These socialization processes combine with adult experiences to produce different types of mental disorders in males and females throughout the life course."
Sales, E., & Frieze, I. H. (1984). Women and work: Implications for mental health, In L. E.Walker (Ed.),
Women and mental health policy [Sage Yearbooks in Women's Policy Studies] (pp. 229 246). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
One of the most noted social trends in recent decades is the dramatic increase in women's labor force participation. This chapter examines what implications this may have for women's mental health. Because women have been heavy users of mental health services some authors have suggested that women's increased labor force participation, especially mothers with young children, might increase stress and result in more mental health problems. Others have suggested that because work is central to adult adjustment and a major source of satisfaction, women's increased labor force participation should have the opposite effect; it should improve their mental health. After a thorough review of the literature on the topic the authors conclude that the evidence regarding the mental health consequences of work for women shows many positive relationships while few negative effects have been found. They state that work is clearly a source of self-esteem and satisfaction for most women. They also point out that the group of women who are most at risk of having mental health problems are non-white, nonmarried, nonemployed women, and women who lived in social isolation with limited roles. This suggests that the women who may most need mental health services may be those not in the work arena, especially women who are isolated or homebound because of young children or limited social roles.
Sartori, G. (1995).
Toward empathy: Access to transition houses for psychiatrized women. Whitehorse, YT: Second Opinion Society of Whitehorse.
In 1990, the disAbled Women's Network (DAWN Canada) published a report called
Meeting Our Needs: An Access Manual for Transition Houses. The authors had looked extensively at the situation of disabled women in accessing transition house services in an abuse crisis. Of the various categories of disability that they examined, "psychiatrically disabled" women were the most likely to seek such services–and the most likely to be turned away on the basis of their disability. This manual is designed to promote the equal access to transition houses that DAWN Canada found lacking. It is written by and from the point of view of women who have experienced psychiatric treatment.
Schreiber, R. (2001, January-February). Wandering in the dark: Women's experiences with depression.
Health Care for Women International, 22(1-2), 85-98.
In North America, rates of depression for women are consistently higher than for men. This phenomenon is poorly understood; nonetheless, the use of grounded theory to investigate women's experiences with depression, treatment, and recovery revealed some unexpected findings. In this article I discuss findings resulting from examination of data from three grounded theory studies of women and depression. In all, data were collected through participant observation and more than 70 interviews and the study sample included participants varying in race, marital status, cultural background, and sexual orientation between 18 to 69 years of age, and included both mothers and nonmothers. Findings included the presence in women of an internal dialogue, reinforcing the philosophical origins of the method in symbolic interactionism; oppression and marginalization of women's experiences; the impact of violence in women's lives; the roles of treatment and learning; and the hope of recovery. I will finish by identifying some questions arising from the findings.
Shannonhouse, R. (Ed.). (2003).
Out of her mind: Women writing on madness. New York: The Modern Library.
Out of Her Mind, edited by Rebecca Shannonhouse, captures the best literature by and about women struggling with madness. A remarkable chronicle of gifted and unconventional women who have spun their inner turmoil into literary gold, the collection features classic short stories, breathtaking literary excerpts, key historical writings, and previously unpublished letters by Zelda Fitzgerald.
Shaw, C., & Proctor, G. (2005, November). Women at the margins: A critique of the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder.
Feminism & Psychology, 15(4): 483–490.
“The diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is applied predominantly to women and, in particular, to survivors of childhood sexual abuse. In this article, we argue that this diagnosis distracts from the aetiological importance for psychological distress of the experience of childhood sexual abuse, and that it pathologizes survivors. We have developed our understandings of the psychiatric response to women’s distress within very different locations in the psychiatric power structure–one as service survivor with a diagnosis of BPD, one as a clinical psychologist. Yet, differently located as we are, we both believe that the diagnosis of BPD individualizes and pathologizes women for their responses to oppression, because of its fundamental failure to locate and understand distress within its social context. We draw on feminist, postmodern and anti-psychiatric critiques in order to present and develop our shared perspective on the diagnosis of BPD, and challenge health professionals and wider society to locate survivors’ distress within the context of sexual violence and gender power relations in society.”
Smith, D. E. (1990).
The conceptual practices of power: A feminist sociology of knowledge [The Northeastern Series of Feminist Theory]. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
In this book Dorothy Smith, one of the leading feminist theorists today, argues that conventional sociology perpetuates traditional patriarchal relations of power through ideological practices. She is especially concerned with the application of sociological ideology to the human service bureaucracy and the way institutions of mental health reconstruct women's lives.
Stoppard, J. M., & McMullen, L. M. (Eds.). (2003).
Situating sadness: Women and depression in social context [Qualitative Studies in Psychology Series]. New York: NYU Press.
It is well known that depression occurs more often in women than in men. It is the most commonly encountered mental health problem among women and ranks overall as one of the most important women's health problems.
Researchers have studied depression a great deal, yet women's depression has rarely been the primary focus. The contexts of women's lives which might contribute to their depression are not often addressed by the mental health establishment, which tends to focus on biological factors.
Situating Sadness sheds light on the influence of sociocultural factors, such as economic distress, child-bearing or child-care difficulties, or feelings of powerlessness which may play a significant role, and points to the importance of context for understanding women's depression.
Situating Sadness draws on research in the United States and other parts of the world to look at depression through the eyes of women, exploring what being depressed is like in diverse social and cultural circumstances. It demonstrates that understanding depression requires close attention to the social context in which women become depressed.
Tang, T. N., & Tang, C. S. (2001, September). Gender role internalization, multiple roles, and Chinese women's mental health.
Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25(3), 181-196.
The influence of gender role internalization as a moderator in the relationship between women's multiple roles and psychological distress was investigated. Study 1 identified three components of gender role internalization, which were labeled "Traditional Ideal Person," "Self-sacrifice," and "Competence without Complaint," and found that it did not overlap with existing gender-typed measures among 128 female Chinese university students. The multidimensionality of gender role internalization was confirmed in Study 2 among a sample of 225 women in the paid Hong Kong workforce. As expected, role quality was a better predictor of psychological distress than role quantity. Gender role internalization accounted for significant portions of explained variance even after taking role quality into account. Internalization of Traditional Ideal Person and Competence without Complaint messages exacerbated distress in certain areas when role quality was low. However, internalization of Self-Sacrifice messages mitigated distress for Chinese women with low work quality.
Tonmyr, L., Jamieson, E., Mery, L. S., MacMillan, H. L. (2005, October). The relation between childhood adverse experiences and disability due to mental health problems in a community sample of women.
Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 50(12), 778-783.
Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the association between selected childhood adverse experiences and disability due to mental health problems in a community sample of women. Variables of interest included childhood physical and sexual abuse, parental psychiatric and substance abuse history, and sociodemographic factors.
Method: Girls and women (aged 15 to 64 years) from a province-wide community sample (n = 4239) were asked about disability and most childhood adverse experiences through interview; a self-administered questionnaire inquired about child abuse. Logistic regression (crude and adjusted odds ratios) was used to test the associations between childhood adversity and disability due to mental health problems.
Results: Approximately 3% of the women had a disability due to mental health problems. Among women with a disability, about 50% had been abused while growing up. After controlling for income and age, we found that disability showed the strongest association with childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, and parental psychiatric disorder.
Conclusion: Disability due to mental health problems was experienced by women with and without exposure to abuse in childhood. However, childhood sexual abuse and physical abuse were important correlates of disability. Disability creates suffering and loss for the individual and society; this issue merits more research in relation to child abuse.
Walker, L. E., (Ed.). (1984).
Women and mental health policy [Sage Yearbooks in Women's Policy Studies]. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
This volume reviews the major issues for women in mental health and links them to policy decisions and directions. The editor points out that although women use mental health services disproportionately, mental health research focusing on issues related to women is often hard to get funded and disseminated. The reason for this lack of support for women's studies within mental health is, according to the editor, that this research often challenges current male-dominated practices. This volume is no exception and many of the chapters deal with topics which are not popular with the larger male-dominated culture nor the mental health subculture.
The first chapter describes the emergence of a feminist perspective in mental health research and public policy. The following chapters cover a wide variety of topics such as the influence of female psychologists on policy making; women and psychotherapy research; the inaccessibility of the mental health system for low-income minority women; lesbian women and mental health policy; violence against women; the problem of sexual intimacy between female-clients and male-therapists; feminist therapy; and many more. This volume contains a wealth of information about women and mental health and is a good starting point for anyone interested in this topic.
Warren, C. A. B. (1991).
Madwives: Schizophrenic women in the 1950s. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
This is a study of the relationship between mental illness and the gender roles of married women in the fifties, and how gender roles influenced the responses to, and experience of mental illness. The data Carol Warren uses was collected in the 1950s in a study of married women who were admitted to a mental hospital. The focus of the original study was on how women's crises were modified during hospitalization, but Warren uses the same data to examine how the gender roles of the fifties shaped the experiences of these same women. Warren's analysis shows how the problems these women experienced were shaped by their gender roles and that gender roles were an important factor in the hospitalization of these housewives. A very interesting study.
Wenegrat, B. (1996).
Illness and power: Women's mental disorders and the battle between the sexes. New York: NYU Press.
Since ancient times, physicians have believed that women are especially vulnerable to certain mental illnesses. Contemporary research confirms that women are indeed more susceptible than men to anxiety, depression, multiple personality, and eating disorders, and several forms of what used to be called hysteria.
Why are these disorders more prevalent in women? Brant Wenegrat convincingly asserts that women's excess risk stems from a lack of social power. He reviews women's social power from an evolutionary and cross-cultural perspective and places mental disorders in the context of evolution and societal organization. In this comprehensive look at mental disorders commonly associated with women, Brant Wenegrat convincingly asserts that women's excess risk stems from a lack of social power.
Wetzel, J. W. (2000, April). Women and mental health: A global perspective.
International Social Work, 43(2), 205-215.
“For the first time in history, on 10 October 1996, the UN focused on the global conditions of women and their high vulnerability to mental illness and emotional trauma. The information presented in this article, a culmination of years of study, is as relevant today as it was when it was presented at the UN. Women’s at-risk status remains constant.” (p. 205)
Wiener, D. (2005). “Normals, crazies, insiders, and outsiders”: The relevance of Sue Estroff’s Medical Anthropology to Disability Studies.
Review of Disability Studies, 1(3), 76-82.
This essay explores the promising interdisciplinary connections between Disability Studies and Medical Anthropology by examining the work of long-time ethnographer and activist Sue Estroff in the context of a Disability Studies perspective and philosophy. The author provides an array of examples of how Estroff ’s historical, and more recent scholarship, is relevant to Disability Studies praxis today, and suggests that Medical Anthropology as a field would benefit from utilizing a Disability Studies orientation in its own scholarship and practices.
Williams, S. (2003).
Women's psychology: Mental illness as a social disease. Seattle: Radical Women Publications.
A critique of the modern Western mental health system which encourages women to adapt to oppression rather than rebel.
Wilson, M. (2001, Summer). Black women and mental health: Working towards inclusive mental health services.
Feminist Review, 68(1), 34-51.
The position concerning the mental health of black and minority ethnic women in Britain is closely linked to that of their respective communities in general. Issues concerning inappropriate care and treatment; lack of access to services; and service delivery based on assumptions and stereotypes govern the way in which black women and men experience mental health care and treatment. This article discusses the specific nature of black women's position, within the wider context of black communities' experience as a whole. While the term 'black and minority ethnic communities' covers a range of differing communities, the focus here is on the experiences of women from African, African-Caribbean and Asian communities. In relation to women in these communities, reference is made to issues concerning: (1) older women; (2) women of mixed heritage; (3) women's roles as care-givers; and (4) the position of refugees and asylum seekers. The article also explores and outlines the importance of self-help strategies including, e.g. befriending and counseling and the role of religion and spirituality in enabling many black people to manage their mental distress.
Women & Mental Health. (1998, Summer).
Consumer Affairs Bulletin, 3(2). Washington, DC: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Retrieved January 2, 2005 from
http://www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/cmh98-5021/cabvo398-02.asp This portion of SAMHSA's
Consumer Affairs Bulletin concern's women’s mental health. They share findings on where women can find information on mental health issues, how women’s mental health needs are different than men’s, and what is being done to address women's mental health.
Worell, J. (2000). Feminism in psychology: Revolution or evolution?
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 571(1), 183-196.
This article discusses the major contributions of feminism to the discipline of psychology in the areas of theory, research, and practice. Among the most important of these innovations are the introduction of the psychology of girls and women as legitimate topics of study; naming and exploring important issues in the lives of women; reconstructing research methods and priorities to study women in the context of their lived experiences; integrating multiple diversities into all areas of the discipline; developing innovative approaches to therapeutic practice; transforming institutions toward being more inclusive and collaborative; and advocating for social action and public policies that benefit the health and well-being of both women and men. Although feminist scholarship and practice have permeated substantive areas of the discipline in both subtle and visible ways, many sectors of psychology remain wary of perspectives that are openly feminist. Feminist psychology remains active, however, and will continue to insist on the visibility of women in all its sectors and practices and on a discipline that values and promotes equality and social justice for all.
Zautra, A. J., & Smith, B. W. (2001). Depression and reactivity to stress in older women with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Psychosomatic Medicine, 63(4), 687-696.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the role of depressive symptoms in reactivity to stress and pain in older women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA).
Methods: Participants were 188 older women with RA (N = 87) and OA (N = 101). They were initially assessed for depressive symptoms and interviewed weekly for 12 to 20 weeks regarding interpersonal stress, arthritis pain, and negative affect.
Results: Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) revealed that depressive symptoms were related to weekly elevations in arthritis pain, negative events, perceived stress, and negative affect for RA respondents and elevations in arthritis pain and negative affect for OA respondents. HLM analyses also indicated that depressive symptoms were related to increased reactivity to perceived stress and arthritis pain in people with RA, but not those with OA.
Conclusions: Depression may be related to elevations in pain for people with RA and OA and to elevations in stress and increased reactivity to stress and pain for those with RA.