MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Graduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

ASM4380

Women, psychiatry and madness

Jan van Bommel

Synopsis We will begin with a socio-historical analysis of madness, its institutionalisation and subsequent de-institutionalisation. We will then critically assess sociological, medical and feminist theories of women, femininity and madness. We will focus on how the institutions of psychiatry and psychotherapy `understand' madness for women. As well, we will examine various feminist critiques of psychoanalysis and female subjectivity.

Assessment Two essays (4500 words each): 50% each

Preliminary reading

• Bernheimer C and Kahane C (eds) In Dora's case: Freud, hysteria, feminism Virago, 1985
• Busfield J Managing madness Unwin Hyman, 1989
• Chesler P Women and madness Doubleday, 1972
• Foucault M Madness and civilization Tavistock, 1967
• Grosz E Sexual subversions Allen and Unwin, 1989
• Showalter E The female malady: Women, madness and English culture, 1830-1980 Pantheon, 1985
• Smith DE and David SJ (eds) Women look at psychiatry Press Gang, 1975