Illness and Power: Women's Mental Disorders and the Battle Between the Sexes

Abstract

Since ancient times, physicians have believed that women are especially vulnerable to certain mental illnesses. Contemporary research confirms that women are indeed more susceptible than men to anxiety, depression, multiple personality and eating disorders, and several forms of what used to be called "hysteria." Women's excess risk of these disorders is real; it cannot be accounted for by use of different diagnostic criteria in men or women, by greater willingness of women to admit psychological symptoms, or by help-seeking behavior by women patients. Why are these disorders more prevalent in women? Brant Wenegrat argues that women's excess risk for these mental disorders results in part from women's lack of social power. He reviews women's social power from an evolutionary and cross-cultural perspective and places their mental disorders in the context of evolution and societal organization. "Illness and power" advances our understanding of women's needs and may change the way professionals view their women patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)