Subjectivity, social inequality and gender malaise. Re-reading the DSM-V

Abstract

This article presents a critical analysis of DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statitstical Manual of Mental Disorders) and proposes comprehending psychological malaise from a gender and a psychosocial approach. Based on sex-prevalence differences based on DSM-V, we analyzed the relationship between normative gender mandates and the emergence of psychological malaises. In front of the biomedical paradigm that constructs disorders from decontextualized symptoms, we investigate the subjective impact of gender, understood as a device of power, and the adaptation to its regulations. We articulate a methodological strategy that starts from the informational/ textual levels and moves to the contextual and interpretative levels of discourse analysis. We emphasize that differences and inequalities in malaises between men and women correspond to the activity/passivity and power/subordination axes that characterize the social construction of masculinity and femininity. In this sense, we link malaises with vulnerabilities and privileges derived from such constructions and propose the concept gender malaise to clarify them.