Women in Psychiatry

This book opens up a space in which psychiatry is viewed from a different perspective: that of women. It tells the story of the past and present of an institution that promised healing but often brought control - of structures that pretended to be caring, and of experiences that oscillate between disenfranchisement, resistance and self-empowerment. Based on current research, feminist theory and numerous personal accounts, the work paints a multi-layered picture of the history of women's psychiatry. It shows how social power relations - gender, class, origin, body, culture - shape the perception of mental health and continue to determine practice to this day. The chapters range from the pathologisation of female emotionality to pharmacological and therapeutic inequalities, violence and coercion, and new perspectives: trauma-informed care, gender medicine and neurodiversity as approaches to a more equitable psychiatry. A work for professionals, students, activists and anyone who wants to know how mental health, power and gender are intertwined - and how healing becomes possible when we begin to tell the story differently. Bremen University Press has published over 5,000 specialist books in various languages since 2005. November 2025