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The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980
 
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The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980 (Paperback)

by Elaine Showalter (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Virago Press Ltd (7 May 1987)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0860688690
  • ISBN-13: 978-0860688693
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.6 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 65,034 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #4 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Key Critics > Showalter, Elaine
    #34 in  Books > Science & Nature > Medicine > Medical Sciences A-Z > Psychiatry

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Product Description

Review
'She writes with penetration, precision and passion. This book is essential reading for all those concerned with what psychiatry has done to women, and what new psychiatry could do for them' ROY PORTER, WELLCOME INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE

Product Description
In this informative, timely and often harrowing study, Elaine Showalter demonstrates how cultural ideas about 'proper' feminine behaviour have shaped the definition and treatment of female insanity for 150 years, and given mental disorder in women specifically sexual connotations. Along with vivid portraits of the men who dominated psychiatry, and descriptions of the therapeutic practices that were used to bring women 'to their senses', she draws on diaries and narratives by inmates, and fiction from Mary Wollstonecraft to Doris Lessing, to supply a cultural perspective usually missing from studies of mental illness.

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The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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42 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Balanced, informative, induces fury., 25 Nov 1999
By A Customer
Elaine Showalter has exhaustively researched her subject, and her findings vary from the fascinating to the merely statistical. But anyone who has the slighest interest in Feminism, or even social history, would really enjoy this book. Also, for fans of Pat Barker's 'Regeneration' trilogy, the chapter on the treatment of shell shock during the First World War provides some fascinating background colour: Barker herself obtained much of her factual input from this section. Showalter's style of writing, full of verve and subtle humour really raises this book from the educational to the enjoyable. Try it - you might like it!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and moving book, 27 Oct 2007
By T. Rose "Ice Queen" (England, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book was reccomended to me by one of my university tutors. I couldn't put it down. As a psychiatric nurse i regularly read books about the history of mental illness. This has to one of the best covering the treatment of women. For myself the chapter covering victorian attitudes was the greatest. How, men returning from the trenches of World War 1 suffering from shell shock made specialists look more into environmental and biological factors of illness. Brilliant read, a must have
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars sad., 20 Aug 2008
By Mrs. D. L. Cox (uk) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a very enlightening book. Very thorough and yet still readable for people with no prior knowledge of mental health history.
Is very hard to read in areas regarding the way many people have been treated. Hard to believe we have been guilty of such practices- but still a very interesting book.
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