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Interrogating the relationship between women and psychosis from a variety of perspectives, this edited collection explores personal, literary, spiritual, psychological, biological, and psychodynamic approaches. The contributors reflect on medieval mystics and witches, postpartum psychosis, disordered eating, art and literature, feminism, and male/female differences in schizophrenia. Women with experience of psychosis, psychotherapists, and a shaman provide first-person accounts to give the book a personal grounding. Curated with the intent to expand the way we think about women and psychosis, the contributors to this collection recognize that "voices and visions" do not occur in a vacuum, but are experienced within, and are influenced by, particular socio-cultural contexts.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Women and Madness in Context
Chapter 2. Explicate or Relate: Recognizing and Differentiating Literary Madwomen
Chapter 3. Stories
Chapter 4. Snakes in the Crib: Psycho-Social Factors in Postpartum Psychosis
Chapter 5. Disordered Eating and Disordered Thinking in Women: A Continuum in Objectification in Anorexia and Psychosis
Chapter 6. Mystics, Witches or Hysterics? The Therapeutic Stakes When Spirituality Becomes a Symptom
Chapter 7. From Sick to Gifted: Discovering Shamanic Illness
Chapter 8. Psychosis in Women: A Perspective from Psychiatry
Chapter 9. Schizophrenia in Women as Compared to Men: Theories to Help Explain the Difference
About the author
Marie Brown is clinical psychology doctoral candidate at Long Island University and co-founder of the Hearing Voices Network NYC.
Marilyn Charles is staff psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center and practicing psychoanalyst.
Summary
Women & Psychosis is an edited collection that examines the intersection of two marginalized identities, those of women and those deemed “psychotic”. Told from a multitude of perspectives, Women & Psychosis brings multidisciplinary thought to the subject, from psychiatrists and clinicians tofirst-person perspectives of the women themselves.
