Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Robert MacKay.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-56).

Research shows that women are at higher risk for being victimized simply because of their gender. Women with mental illness living independently are especially vulnerable, since they underreport victimization and underutilize available resources. This study evaluated the benefits of educating women with mental illness about safety and violence. Twenty women utilizing outpatient services at two community mental health centers participated in one of two 12-week groups: 15 received an educational curriculum and 5 a control condition. Outcomes were assessed using pretest and posttest measures of quality of daily life, self-esteem and perceived control over life events, awareness of available resources to them as women, awareness of violence, attitudes about safety, and confidence in abilities to protect themselves. The greatest improvement was in the curriculum women's awareness of resources. Intra-group variability, a small sample size, and other unexpected complications precluded a definitive evaluation of the curriculum, but overall results suggest further research in this area would be beneficial. / Department of Psychological Science

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references.

Shirley Jackson's fiction continues to be placed within the gothic horror genre because of its supernatural and horror images. I contend the major focus of her work is her critique of the social norms constructed for women by an archaic and inauthentic patriarchial system of rules and domestic expectation for women that result in madness for the resisting female.

In India, various underlying gender related structural factors (i.e., interpersonal violence, lack of social supports, limited opportunities, poverty, and gender biases in mental health practice) serve to keep women living with serious mental illness isolated in psychiatric institutions. Despite this, narratives of women living with serious mental illness and their experiences within institutions have received limited visibility in research. The present study addresses this crucial gap by documenting the lives of women who are former inpatients of a mental hospital and are currently residing at a halfway home in India. I adopted a social constructivist narrative approach to incorporate women’s experiences and examine the context and ways in which their experiences were shaped and situated. Specifically, the study explored the following questions. 1. How do women describe their experiences and perceptions related to the illness and living at a psychiatric institution (i.e., mental hospital and the halfway home)? 2. What are the physical and social characteristics of the halfway home serving women living with serious mental illness in India? I answered the first question using narrative data, collected through 34 in-depth interviews with 11 women residents at the halfway home, I examined the second question using field notes that included everyday observations and interactions with women residents, staff members, and interviews with the Director, the Psychologist, the Social Worker, and the Head Housemother at the halfway home. Thereafter, using the theories of self-in-relation (Miller, 1976; Surrey, 1985), institutionalization (Goffman, 1961), and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1990), I dissect the two research questions further to analyse how women’s experiences and perceptions related to illness and institutionalization are shaped by their gender and social positioning. Using a gender lens, I also critically examine the psychosocial rehabilitation program at the halfway home and ways in which it supports women living with serious mental illness. I used Fraser (2004) guidelines to analyse the narrative data and Emerson, Fretz & Shaw (1995) guidelines to analyse field notes. Women’s narratives highlight that gender and social positioning significantly shape their experiences of living with mental illness in India. Women perceived their discriminatory social context, particularly restrictive gender norms, a lifetime of denied opportunities, loss of relationships, and violence both in the natal and marital family as factors that contributed and/or exacerbated their illness experiences. Women’s narratives of institutionalization were also embedded in discriminatory social contexts. Poverty and gender disadvantage were the primary reasons for women’s admission to mental hospitals. Furthermore, the shift in care from institutions like mental hospitals to less restrictive institutions like the halfway home did not necessarily improve the lives of women living with serious mental illness. Women share several gender-specific barriers to leaving the halfway home. Furthermore, psychiatric institutions often mirrored patriarchal social relations by perpetuating illness and gender related biases in the delivery of care.

Representations of "madness" in literature written by women have been the focus of feminist studies in the western world since the Victorian Era. When Charlotte Gilman Perkins wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" in 1892, she "met with consternation of disapproving males ...[and] it was virtually ignored for thirty years" (Kasmer 1). Glman herself had gone through a "rest cure" which had brought her "perilously close to having a nervous breakdown" (Kasmer 1). Kasmer holds that the treatment of "rest cure" was commonly prescribed to women diagnosed with hysteria, to help them through "reintegration [into her proper] position as wife by forcing her to focus only on her home and children" (Kasmer 1). Adrienne Rich calls for re-visionary readings of all feminist texts. "Revision--the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction" (483) is, for women, an act of survival. When we re-read female texts and re-write ourselves, we see "how our language has trapped as well as liberated us, how the very act of naming has been until now a male prerogative, and how we can begin to see and name--and therefore live--afresh" (Rich 483). Gilbert and Gubar, in their revision of Gilman's text, hold that the narrator "effects" her own liberation from the "textual/architectural confinement" of patriarchal constructs by tearing down the wallpaper when she discovers her double behind it, enabling the double to escape to freedom" (91). Thus, when female authors write about madness, they are "naming" themselves in their own language--the language of the body, which leads to freedom from the patriarchal construct and discourse. When women enter into this medium, they break free from the symbolic order, and only women who speak the same language, and listen with "another ear," (Irigaray) can interpret them. Interpreting this language through our bodies "involves a recognition of difference, a force different from the patriarch. This force points towards liberation" (Kasmer 13). My discussion of the representation of madness in Anita Desai's Cry. The Peacock and Bharati Mukherjee's Wife supports feminists' reading of madness. In both the books, the heroines break free from the patriarchal construct into another world where they can choose to name themselves. They rewrite and rename their experiences which leads them to liberation. This escape from the patriarchal construct and discourse is named "madness," but feminists claim this experience as empowering by questioning the very construct of madness. They claim that madness is actually a liberation from the patriarchal construct that keeps us in a subordinated and oppressed position in society. / Graduation date: 1994

Women in the perinatal period who suffer from mental health challenge (and specifically mood disorders) have a number of special considerations to which they must attend. Issues around psychotropic medication, hormonal fluctuations and/or sleep hygiene, for example, may lead women to a decision to feed their infants with formula. In this hermeneutic study, the experiences of six women are studied. The women are registered with Perinatal Mental Health Program at Vancouver Island Health Authority, and are feeding their infants with formula. Evidence- based-practice guidelines are explored in the context of mental health challenge. A dilemma has been exposed around the perceived need expressed by participants for ‘permission’ to discontinue or not initiate breastfeeding. The potential for further understanding looms with regard to the relationship between breastfeeding challenge and the onset of a mood disorder, including the speculation that breastfeeding difficulties may belong on the list of risk factors for post partum depression.

Thesis (doctoral)--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-412).