Female Insanity

The article The Female Malady raises many important themes that have previously been brought up in class. For instance in Victorian times women who desired sex, roles outside the home, wanted divorces, etc. were deemed insane. Any deviation from the societal norm was considered insanity. This illustrates not only man's fear of female sexuality, as has been examined by how lesbians are viewed and treated in modern day society, but it also shows the imposition of the ideas of normal. In Victorian society females were suppose to be demure, sexless, obedient wives and devoted mothers. If a woman didn't fulfill these roles then she was deemed insane. The course of actions that doctors took to treat these women, performing clitoridectomy and having women in asylums take up traditional roles like cleaning and sewing, reinforces society's fear of female sexuality. The very ideal of female sexuality contradicted every Victorian ideal. These same paternalistic attitudes towards women's sexual behavior can be seen in America during the early 1900s. As we read previously many of the woman who were coerced into being sterilized during this period were not actually "imbeciles" as the doctors claims, many were women who had children out of wedlock or engaged in other sexually "deviant" behavior. This article really highlights the horrible treatment women received in asylums and the stereotypes that were forced upon them, however, it is also important to note that many of these prejudices and stereotypes still exist in modern day psychology and psychiatry. 

Women are diagnosed with anxiety disorders and unipolar depression twice as often as men. Also, other certain psychological disorders are mainly attributed to women like hysterical somatoform disorders, where the person is convinced that something is medically wrong, but nothing is. Dependent and histrionic personality disorders have also commonly been more diagnosed in females than males. These diagnoses reveal that many of the common stereotypes about women being emotionally unstable, dependent on others for care, and vain are still seen throughout psychology. Another interesting thing to note is that homosexuality was only removed from the DSM manual in 1973. So while, many attitudes are changing and women are becoming the dominating force in psychology it is still interesting and disturbing to see the prevalence of many of these Victorian views.