The female malady

Description

In this informative, timely and often harrowing study, Elaine Showalter demonstrates how cultural ideas about 'proper' feminine behaviour have shaped the definition and treatment of female insanity for 150 years, and given mental disorder in women specifically sexual connotations. Along with vivid portraits of the men who dominated psychiatry, and descriptions of the therapeutic practices that were used to bring women 'to their senses', she draws on diaries and narratives by inmates, and fiction from Mary Wollstonecraft to Doris Lessing, to supply a cultural perspective usually missing from studies of mental illness. Highly original and beautifully written, The Female Malady is a vital counter-interpretation of madness in women, showing how it is a consequence of, rather than a deviation from, the traditional female role.

Description

Showlater demonstrates how cultural ideas ab out 'proper' feminie behaviour have shaped the definition and treatment of female insanity for 150 yars, and given mental disorder in women specifically sexual connotations. Along with vivid portraits of the men who dominated psychiatry, and descriptions of the therapeutic practices that were used to bring women 'to their senses', she draws on diaries and narratives by inmates, and fiction from Mary Wollstonecraft to Doris Lessing to supply a cultural perspective usually missing from studies of mental illness.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The female malady: women, madness and English culture 1830-1980Virago1987-01-01
• The female maladyPantheon Books1985-01-01
• The female maladyPantheon Books1985-01-01
• The female maladyPenguin Books1987-01-01
• The Female MaladyPaperbackVirago Press Ltd1987-05-07