Reading Journal #1: Reflections on the term madness

Description

This week we’re reading Chapter One of our first textbook – The Madness of Women by Jane M. Ussher. In case you haven’t gotten your book yet, I’ve made a copy of this first chapter that you can access here
. After reading the text, choose TWO (2) of the following sets of questions to answer (Note – a full answer will engage the question with specific quotes from the text and be between 250 – 500 words per question):

1) What passages/phrases stood out to you in this chapter? What questions were raised while you were reading this chapter? Was there anything you didn’t understand that you’d like to discuss as a class?

2) The author deliberately uses the term ”madness” throughout the book. What other terms could she use? Why does she use this term? How do you react to this term?

3) The author writes (pg 3), “Madness is a spectre that haunts all women. No woman is immune from psychiatric diagnosis; no woman is immune from the distress (or the ascription of deviance) that can lead to this diagnosis.” Do you agree with the author? Why or why not? What evidence does she present to support her position?

4) The author writes (pg 4), “… diagnostic categories are social constructions reflecting beliefs about madness and sanity in a particular place at a particular point in time.” Tell me, in your own words – what does this mean?