Gender and Mental Health Flashcards
First Wave of Feminism
1800s - 1940s/50s
Theory Development: Liberal Feminism
Mental Health: conflation of ‘madness’ and ‘badness’
Second Wave of Feminism
1960s - early 1980s
Historical Milestones: introduction of consciousness-raising groups (black rights, peace, unions)
- education and occupation
Theory Development: Radical (socialist, marxist) feminism
- challenge standard gender roles
Mental Health: medicalization of women’s biology and tie to mental disorder
- PMS, PPD, menopause
- research suggest higher depression in women
- PTSD entered DSM in 1980
Third Wave of Feminism
Late 1980s - present
Theory Development: postmodern and post colonial feminisms
- deconstruction of feminism, leading to multiple theories (gender, religious, etc.)
Mental Health: power of pharmaceuticals, contrasted with the still lacking attention to context of women’s lives
- question diagnostic categories
- social constructs rather than pathology
Men and mental health
4 out of 5 of all suicides are committed by men
- mental illness can be masked in men
- symptoms present differently
- personal and cultural appropriation of gender roles prevent behaviour from being understood as symptoms
- estimated 6 million men suffer from depression
- many live with the effects without professional support
Social Expectations for Men
- convey power through behaviour
- display emotional control
- interest in sex
- physical dominance and aggression
Anorexia Nervosa
- refusal to maintain normal body weight, 15% below avg
- intense fear of gaining weight in spit being underweight
- distortions and disturbances in body image
- undue influence on self-evaluation
- denial
- absence of at least 3 consecutive menstrual cycles
Bulimia Nervosa
- recurrent binge eating
- sense of lack of control
- recurrent inappropriate behaviour to stop (self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives, excessive exercise)
- at least two times per week for 3 months
- undue influence on self-evaluation
Social Construction of ED
- culture-bound diagnosis
- not found in all countries and cultures
- western culture feeds the development of EDs through standards of attractiveness
Treatment of ED
a. medical treatment
- malnutrition and endocrine problems
b. psychotherapy
- behavioural
- cognitive
- psychodynamic
- family
- individual or group
Implications in Practice
patriarchal oppression
- countering, resisting, suppressing change for women
egalitarianism
- both client and therapist are experts
empowerment
- gender sensitive practitioners take into account context
self-reflection
- for both client and therapist, examine biases and assumptions
Feminist Psychotherapies
- informed by feminist political philosophy and analysis
- lead therapist and client toward strategies and solutions advancing feminist resistance, transformation and social change in daily personal life
- gender and power as categories of analysis
Gender perspectives in Recovery
- gender diversity in terms of decisive factors for recovery
1. recovery competence
2. making meaning
3. embodied recovery
Recovery Competence
- shouldering responsibility for illness
- men took on and were given responsibility earlier than women
- men were dissatisfied with treatment but also had a feeling of cooperation with staff
- women found that being inpatients counteracted their efforts to contribute, inducing a feeling of helplessness
Making Meaning
- men read and spoke to others to learn about illness, then created an action plan
- men emphasized importance of being engaged in groups, sense of belonging
- women talked to others about illness, not about symptom control but to understand themselves and why they became ill, aimed at authenticity
- most women, few men, said spirituality helped them maintain hope
- meaning through art
Embodied Recovery
- emerging behaviours understood as gendered bodily manifestations of illness and recovery
- men when ill were quiet and showed embodied rejection, fear and anxiety, felt paralyzed
- women were active and sought contact and help, described self as demanding in help seeking behaviour
- men neglected appearance while women tried to keep up appearance
