Rethinking Mental Health and Disorder Feminist Perspectives

This volume presents cutting-edge work at the interface of feminist theory and mental health. Building on the success of their acclaimed Personality and Psychopathology, which called into question traditional models of health and disorder, Mary Ballou and Laura S. Brown have invited a stellar array of contributors to continue the vital process of feminist theory building and critique. The book outlines compelling theoretical approaches--including postmodern, constructivist, relational-cultural, and feminist ecological perspectives--that go beyond simply inserting analyses of gender, culture, and other contextual factors into existing paradigms. Also examined are specific areas of distress and disorder about which new feminist understandings have been developed in the past decade. Shedding new light on such conditions as depression, PTSD, psychosis, somatoform disorders, and premenstrual syndrome, chapters address critical questions about how disorders are diagnosed, who gets labeled as "sick," and how treatment is conceptualized and delivered.

Mary Ballou, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Counseling Psychology Program at Northeastern University. Within the master's counseling psychology program, she has created a curriculum that encourages students to select such interdisciplinary concentrations as Culture, Gender, and Political Psychology. Within the doctoral program, she has been a leader in developing an ecological model that supports structural analysis, interdisciplinarity, and paradigm change for the combined counseling and school psychology program. Dr. Ballou also practices feminist psychology in counseling and consulting. She is coeditor (with Laura S. Brown) of [i]Personality and Psychopathology: Feminist Reappraisals[/i].

Laura S. Brown, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the Washington School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, in Seattle. She has also maintained a practice of feminist psychotherapy, forensic psychology, and consultation in Seattle since 1979. She has written extensively on issues of feminist practice, including diagnosis and assessment, feminist forensic practice, ethics and boundary issues, psychotherapy with lesbians, trauma and memory of abuse, and theory in feminist therapy. Dr. Brown has published over 120 articles and book chapters and 6 edited or authored books, and has received numerous awards for her contributions to research and practice.