By Elayne Clift
OpEdNews.com
Originally published on December 22, 2012
Here are some
excerpts:
Feminist
therapists are concerned for women in particular. Diagnoses such as Borderline
Personality Disorder (BPD) and Sexual Dysfunction have disparaged women and
compromised them in troubling ways. For example, one expert says that BPD is
almost exclusively applied to women because its symptoms relate to emotion and
anger. Some women with the diagnosis have histories of abuse and may
have difficulty expressing anger "appropriately." Such
vulnerable women need to have their coping styles better understood before
assumptions are made about their behavior.
Similarly,
"sexual dysfunction" among women is often based on assumptions about
what constitutes normal sexual behavior. "If only performance
failures or lack of desire count, the entire context of sexual activity becomes
invisible and of secondary importance," says one member of the Association
of Women in Psychology (AWP).
Another
AWP member focuses on classism in psychiatric diagnosis. "Poor
women and women of color are particularly likely to be misdiagnosed or
encounter bias in treatment," she says. "Therapists may interpret
chronic lateness or missed appointments as hostility or resistance to treatment
rather than the outcomes of unreliable transportation, irregular shift work,
and unpredictable child care arrangements."
The entire article is here.
