Gendering Mental Health

Steeped in archaic and narrow colonial attitudes towards people of unsound mind, the discourse on mental health in India, as also the public apparatus dealing with it, are rigid, exclusionary, and deeply gender insensitive. Interrogating the ways in which we understand and deal with mental health disabilities, this volume unravels the voices of women trapped in the predominantly skewed discourse of mental ill-health as madness, within the sciences, legal systems, policies, andthe media. The collection of essays in this volume focus on the state of mental health of Indian women, with respect to social attitudes, cultural barriers, treatment, policies, safeguards, or lack thereof. The contributors ask fundamental questions:: Is mental illness a social, medical, legal, penal, historical, personal construct? Is mental disorder a disability? Do people living with a mental ailment have a memory or the insight to tell their own stories? In dealing with these questions, it seeksto provide a perspective on how women suffering from mental illness view themselves and their surroundings in India. Combining primary research and insights from gender studies and mental health specialists, the volume presents a fundamental critique of the institutional responses to womens mental health, and highlights the dire need to overhaul the Indian mental health system.