Books in the Women and Psychology series

Employing Foucault's notion of panoptical power, Helen O'Grady explores the relationship women have with themselves and explores the link between debilitating practices of self-surveillance and the broader mechanisms of social control.

This book explores research that attempts to deepen theorizing and elaborate upon the practical implications of women¿s efforts to negotiate and resist the dominant discourse, and to create counterstories for their lives.

The book focuses not just on menstruation, but on the whole 'menstrual' cycle and its relationship to women's lives. Anne Walker's cross-cultural analysis exposes the limitations of the normal textbook descriptions.

Contemporary feminist and poststructuralist theories of sex and gender are explored alongside an investigation of how people make sense of such concepts as heterosexuality, orgasm, sexual dysfunction and femininity and masculinity.

Provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date discussion of the gender and language field from a psychological perspective.

Linda Gannon challenges traditional assumptions that aging in women is defined by the menopause. She argues that crucial determinants of well-being in aging women are physical competence, social skills and economic dependence.

Provides an in-depth critical examination of mainstream approaches to understanding and treating depression from a feminist perspective.

Feminist interventions in psychoanalysis have often attempted either to subvert or re-frame the masculinist and phallocentric biases of Freud's psychoanalysis. This book investigates the nature of these interventions by comparing the status and treatment of women in two different psychoanalytic models: the Kleinian and the feminist models.

Why, despite evidence to the contrary, does the narrative of the negative consequences of teenage pregnancy, abortion and childbearing persist? This book outlines a critical view of 'teenage pregnancy' and abortion, arguing that the negativity surrounding early reproduction is underpinned by a particular understanding of adolescence.

Paula Nicolson provides a critique of traditional medical and social science explanations of post-natal depression; she argues that far from it being an abnormal condition it is a healthy response to a series of losses.

Many women find mothering a shocking experience in terms of the extremity of feelings it provokes, and the profound changes it seems to prompt in identity, relationship and sense of self. This book discusses the possibility for a specific feminine-maternal subjectivity, relationality and reciprocity, ethics and otherness.

Discusses women's experiences of living well after depression. This book examines how women negotiate and actively resist hegemonic discourses of femininity in their struggles to recover from depression and be well. It is suitable for students of psychology, sociology, women's studies, social work, counseling, and nursing.

Offering an understanding of the female single identity, this book explores how women deal with this potentially stigmatized identity. It focuses highlights that the culturally available and familiar resources for understanding singleness are highly polarized.

In this psychological study of women in heterosexual relationships, the author examines the social context of their experiences and emotional struggles. The text places case study material in the context of the power balance between women and men.

Humans are not born with a capacity to care, and this volume explores how this capacity is achieved through the experiences of primary care, gender development and later, parenting. It addresses the assumption that the capacity to care is innate. It provides a theorization of the nature of selfhood.

Child sexual abuse is a global problem that negatively affects many women and girls. This book draws on this revolutionary legacy, feminism and post-structuralism to critically examine perceptions of women, girls and child abuse in psychology, psychiatry and the mass media, and to re-evaluate mainstream and feminist approaches to this subject.

Pregnancy provides a very public, visual confirmation of femininity. It is a time of rapid physical and psychological adjustment for women and is surrounded by stereotyping, taboos and social expectations. This book seeks to examine these popular attitudes towards pregnancy and to consider how they influence women's experiences of being pregnant.

Takes an approach to the study of the material and discursive practices associated with the construction and regulation of the female body. This work examines the ways in which medicine, science, law, and culture combine to produce fictions about femininity, positioning the reproductive body as the source of women's power, danger and weakness.

Reassessing Experimental Psychology from a critical perspective, Sylvia Blood demonstrates how its research into Body Image can be misused and prone to misuse.

Explores one reason many women offer for their lack of involvement in sport and exercise - that they are not the 'sporty' type.

Providing a review of the relevant literature and research, this book demonstrates how discourse and conversation analysis can be applied to rework central feminist notions and concepts, ultimately revealing their full potential and relevance to other disciplines. It is useful to the students of sociology, gender studies and cultural studies.

Just Sex? combines an overview of existing literature with an analysis of recent research to examine the psychological and cultural implications of date rape, making a valuable contribution to existing feminist and social constructionist thought.

Revised edition of the author's Domestic violence and psychology, 2010.