The female malady
women, madness, and English culture, 1830-1980
by Elaine Showalter
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This incisive study explores how cultural ideas about proper feminine behavior have shaped the definition and treatment of madness in women as it traces trends in the psychiatric care of women in England from 1830-1980.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Mental health, Mental health services, Psychiatry, History, Women, New York Times reviewed, Women, mental health, Women, great britain, Psychiatry, history, Women, social conditions, Mental illness, Mental Disorders, Psychology, Women in literature, Mentally ill in literature, Sexism in mental health services, Social conditions, Women's Health, Women and psychoanalysisPlaces
England, Great Britain| Edition | Availability |
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1
The female malady: women, madness, and English culture, 1830-1980
1987, Penguin Books
in English
0140101691 9780140101690
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2
The female malady: women, madness and English culture 1830-1980
1987, Virago
in English
0860688690 9780860688693
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3
The Female Malady
May 7, 1987, Virago Press Ltd
Paperback
- Reissue edition
0860688690 9780860688693
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4
The female malady: women, madness, and English culture, 1830-1980
1985, Pantheon Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0394520211 9780394520216
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5
The female malady: women, madness, and English culture, 1830-1980
1985, Pantheon Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0394520211 9780394520216
|
zzzz
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Bibliography: p. [288]-302.
Includes index.
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Work 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.
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| May 6, 2025 | Edited by tannumishra2201 | |
| May 6, 2025 | Edited by tannumishra2201 | |
| January 27, 2025 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
| December 10, 2023 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
| December 9, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |