{"title":"Difference or dysfunction?: Deconstructing desire in the DSM-5 diagnosis of Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder","authors":"Emily J Thomas, M. Gurevich","doi":"10.1177/0959353521989536","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353521989536","url":null,"abstract":"This article answers ongoing calls within critical sexuality scholarship to explore how constructions of women’s bodies influence and are influenced by broader sociocultural contexts. Specifically, this article offers a conceptual analysis of female sexual desire, highlighting the deeply political nature of its pathologization. We briefly explore dominant definitions and models of sexual desire to highlight the erasure of embodied desire as an important part of healthy female sexuality. The DSM-5 diagnosis of Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder is critically analyzed to highlight how desire differences are framed as gendered, individual problems which sidelines relational, contextual, and sociopolitical factors contributing to individual distress. When the language of desire is displaced by the language of interest (particularly when framed as receptivity), the capacity to theorize wanting and entitlement is undermined. We argue that the pathologization of diverse desires obscures possibilities for embodied wanting and neglects the consideration that all types of desire (absent, frequent, physical, emotional) may represent normal sexual variations.","PeriodicalId":47643,"journal":{"name":"Feminism & Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80289965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial introduction: The politics of psychological suffering","authors":"J. Marecek, Michelle N Lafrance","doi":"10.1177/0959353521989537","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353521989537","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue, “The politics of psychological suffering,” draws attention to the contested bases of knowledge in the “psy” professions (psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy and related disciplines) (Foucault, 1977; Rose, 1999). We aim to explore the political contexts and production of people’s psychological distress. We take “psychological suffering” as the starting point for analysis, as a means of dislodging prefigured notions of individualized “mental illness” or “psychopathology.” This, we hope, serves as a feminist counterpoint to mainstream understandings of psychological suffering as biomedical illness. Exploring a range of experiences (from women’s sexuality to eating difficulties to responses to traumatic events), the articles in this issue disrupt and re-envision the taken-for-granted ways in which the psy professions typically frame and engage with people’s pain. Psy discourses are baked into the vocabulary that people in many parts of the world have come to rely on to make sense of their everyday experiences and make themselves known to others. That is, they use the language and concepts made available by the psy disciplines to think themselves into being (Rose, 1998).","PeriodicalId":47643,"journal":{"name":"Feminism & Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84565603","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toward a feminist psychological theory of “institutional trauma”","authors":"Lucy Thompson","doi":"10.1177/0959353520968374","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353520968374","url":null,"abstract":"Public discussions about trauma are circulating exponentially in the wake of global movements against structural violence, and efforts to mainstream “trauma-informed” approaches in mental health, human services, and organizational contexts. Within these discussions, the term “institutional trauma” is increasingly being deployed to make sense of structural violence and its impacts. However, such discussions typically reproduce highly individualistic understandings of trauma. Recent feminist advances in trauma theory articulate trauma as a distinctly socio-political form of distress, and critical feminist psychological work argues that gender and other institutions play a substantial role in defining and mediating experiences of trauma. However, the role of institutions in the (re)production of trauma remains under-theorized in the psychological literature. This paper applies feminist, critical mental health, and decolonial perspectives to identify the limitations of mainstream psychological perspectives on trauma and proposes a critical psychological theory of “institutional trauma”. I apply this critical analytic to argue that dominant biomedical and neoliberal frameworks fail to adequately account for the socio-political dimensions of trauma. I then consider institutional theory as a useful feminist psychological analytic through which to expand trauma theory and subvert pathologizing accounts of trauma as disordered and maladaptive.","PeriodicalId":47643,"journal":{"name":"Feminism & Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88904330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regulating “untrustworthy patients”: Constructions of “trust” and “distrust” in accounts of inpatient treatment for anorexia","authors":"S. Holmes, H. Malson, J. Semlyen","doi":"10.1177/0959353520967516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353520967516","url":null,"abstract":"Trust has been seen as a lynchpin of therapeutic relationships. Yet due to perceptions that anorexia is one of the most difficult illnesses to treat and that patients are “treatment resistant”, achieving trust between patient and treatment provider may be challenging. This article draws on qualitative data from 14 semi-structured interviews with women who have experience of inpatient treatment for anorexia in order to analyse how trust and distrust figured in treatment contexts. In so doing, the article draws upon feminist approaches which are critical of conceptions of the “devious” “anorexic” and of the clinical discourses within which these constructions are produced. Our analysis suggests a lack of trust shown toward patients in inpatient contexts – particularly a disqualification of “voice” – which has a number of consequences for participants’ subjectivities, including the erosion of self-esteem; demotivation; dropping out/termination of treatment; and triggering experiences of trauma. As such, our analysis raises serious questions about what participants described as routine treatment practices in inpatient treatment for anorexia, and about the serious consequences of constructing “anorexics” as manipulative and untrustworthy.","PeriodicalId":47643,"journal":{"name":"Feminism & Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87029101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminism & PsychologyPub Date : 2021-02-01Epub Date: 2020-12-08DOI: 10.1177/0959353520969297
Helen Spandler, Sarah Carr
{"title":"A history of lesbian politics and the psy professions.","authors":"Helen Spandler, Sarah Carr","doi":"10.1177/0959353520969297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353520969297","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article explores the relationship between lesbian activists and the \"psy professions\" (especially psychology and psychiatry) in England from the 1960s to the 1980s. We draw on UK-based LGBTQIA+ archive sources and specifically magazines produced by, and for, lesbians. We use this material to identify three key strategies used within the lesbian movement to contest psycho-pathologisation during this 30-year period: from respectable collaborationist forms of activism during the 1960s; to more liberationist oppositional politics during the early 1970s; to radical feminist separatist activism in the 1980s. Whilst these strategies broadly map onto activist strategies deployed within the wider lesbian and gay movement during this time, this article explores how these politics manifested in particular ways, specifically in relation to the psy disciplines in the UK. We describe these strategies, illustrating them with examples of activism from the archives. We then use this history to problematise a linear, overly reductionist or binary history of liberation from psycho-pathologisation. Finally, we explore some complexities in the relationship between sexuality, activism and the psy professions.</p>","PeriodicalId":47643,"journal":{"name":"Feminism & Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0959353520969297","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"25486210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"He kākano ahau – identity, Indigeneity and wellbeing for young Māori (Indigenous) men in Aotearoa/New Zealand","authors":"L. Hamley, J. L. Grice","doi":"10.1177/0959353520973568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353520973568","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how dominant Eurocentric approaches to mental health are unable to address the diverse needs of young Māori men in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Drawing on current health inequities facing Māori and young Māori men in particular, this commentary explores how colonisation has impacted young Māori men in negative ways. Through shaping current health structures in Aotearoa/New Zealand, dominant Eurocentric approaches foreground individualised conceptualisations of Māori ill-health, and then apply predominantly Western therapies to resolve this. These approaches are ill-equipped to address the intergenerational and structural issues which are at the root of mental health disparities for young Māori men. This article adds to a growing body of Indigenous psychology literature that speaks to the inadequacies within (mental) health systems for addressing the ongoing challenges that Māori experience due to colonisation. It further highlights how the intersections among ethnicity/race, class, age and masculinity for Māori men are shaped by colonial discourses. These inadequacies reflect a broader issue of the constraints placed on Māori self-determination by the colonial systems of power in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The article closes by proposing some alternative approaches to supporting Māori wellbeing that centre the needs and aspirations of Māori.","PeriodicalId":47643,"journal":{"name":"Feminism & Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87464461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Queer kinship: South African perspectives on the sexual politics of family-making and belonging by Tracy Morison, Ingrid Lynch, and Vasu Reddy (Eds)","authors":"Hayley Aikman, Nayantara Sheoran Appleton","doi":"10.1177/0959353520976023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353520976023","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47643,"journal":{"name":"Feminism & Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89340230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: The new politics of fatherhood: Men’s movements and masculinities by Ana Jordan","authors":"A. Borgkvist","doi":"10.1177/0959353520980884","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353520980884","url":null,"abstract":"tating more on how things should be done. Also, throughout the book, save for highlights of same-sex couples, the voice of intending fathers in heterosexual relationships is almost completely left out in the surrogacy discourse. This imbalance may water down the book’s overriding theme of the role of surrogacy in gender and social parity and health equity. Despite a few weak areas, Riggs and Due successfully managed to deftly present a compelling read for all social scientists keen on the subject of surrogacy and its role in social justice and health equity.","PeriodicalId":47643,"journal":{"name":"Feminism & Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0959353520980884","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72405369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sarah Riley, Adrienne Evans and Martine Robson, Postfeminism and health: Critical psychology and media perspectives","authors":"W. Kałwak","doi":"10.1177/0959353520979500","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353520979500","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47643,"journal":{"name":"Feminism & Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82544929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}