The Female Body in Mind: The Interface between the Female Body and Mental Health

by Nasser; Mervat

• ISBN13: 9780415385152
• ISBN10: 0415385156
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2007-05-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Female Body in Mind introduces new ways of thinking about issues of women's mental health assessment and treatment. Its multidisciplinary approach incorporates social, psychological, biological and philosophical perspectives on the female body. The contributions, from notable academics in the field of women's mental health, examine the relationship between women's bodies, society and culture, demonstrating how the body has become a platform for women's expression of their distress and anguish. The book is divided into six sections, all centred on the theme of the body, covering: The body at risk. The hurting body. The reproductive body. The interactive body. Body-sensitive therapies. The body on my mind. All professionals involved in women's mental health will welcome this exploration of the complexities involved in the relationship between women bodies and their mental health.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. viii
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgment	p. xiv
The body in question	p. xv
The body at risk	p. 1
At risk by reason of gender	p. 3
(Re)figuring identities: My body is what I am	p. 17
The hurting body	p. 29
Deliberate self harm	p. 31
Psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder	p. 41
The trauma of self starvation: Eating disorders and body image	p. 57
Breast cancer and body image	p. 72
The reproductive body	p. 91
Women's bodies: Natural history and biological programming	p. 93
"On being a mother": Motherhood and mental health	p. 104
Sad motherhood: An overview of perinatal affective disorders	p. 119
Women who kill their babies	p. 132
The interactive body	p. 147
Society and women's distress	p. 149
When the personal gets in the way of the (inter)personal	p. 162
Care and blame: The dialectic of caring	p. 178
Concepts of body and self in minority groups	p. 192
Body-sensitive therapies	p. 203
Feminist therapies	p. 205
Self-help and healing narratives	p. 214
Dialectical behaviour therapy: A treatment for borderline personality disorder	p. 228
Gender and psychopharmacology	p. 238
The body on my mind	p. 253
Do women need specific services?	p. 255
Gender-sensitive education and gender competence training: The perspective of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and beyond	p. 266
Index	p. 280
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