Illness and Power: Women's Mental Disorders and the Battle between the Sexes

Brant Wenegrat

Published by New York University Press 1995

Illness and Power

Women's Mental Disorders and the Battle between the Sexes

Brant Wenegrat

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814794937.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Wenegrat Brant :

Brant Wenegrat is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Reviews

Linda Garfield,Stanford University Medical Center:
An important book...treats alternative explanations for women's mental disorders with crisp, critical insight, culling out the wrongheaded and embracing valid points of view where they exist.

Judith Eve Lipton, M.D.:
Provocative . . . . Chock full of interesting, colorful anecdotes and observations. Wenegrat is one of the few psychiatrists who has dared to apply evolutionary thinking to everyday clinical practice.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
1. Introduction: Explaining Women's Disorders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Depression and Anxiety: Responses to Lack of Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
3. Women's Mental Disorders as Illness Roles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
4. Two Modern-Day Epidemics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
5. An Evolutionary, Cross-Cultural View of Women's Social Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
6. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: asserts; associated; Brant; commonly; comprehensive; context; convincingly; cross-; cultural; disorders; evolution; evolutionary; excess; from; lack; look; mental; organization; perspective; places; power; reviews; risk; social; societal; stems; that; this; Wenegrat; with; women; womens

eBook

Published: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 9780814794937