Main description:

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.

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