Sacred & profane Book

Ussher's book began as a feminist rant that infuriated me. I came as close as I ever have to throwing the book across the room in disgust. However, in the end, I was thoroughly convinced of Ussher's main argument: that women's mental health issues are most definitely related to our relegation as "the second sex," that patriarchal society makes us ill, and that solutions are elusive. Perhaps most surprisingly, the author takes the radical feminists to task:

"This theorizing…establishes a cosy elite which can be entered only by the chosen few. Yet the few women who manage to survive the perils of patriarchy to reach the feminist utopia are likely to share many of the characteristics of the castigated male oppressors. These women are invariably white, able-bodied, middle-class, without dependants, well educated and articulate. The majority of women who fight for survival on a daily basis, whose worries centre around feeding their families, arranging childcare, and maintaining some semblance of sanity in the face of adversity, will be completely alienated by this brand of feminist rhetoric. Who can take a psychic journey when the reality of unpaid bills, screaming children and an unsupportive partner are glaring her in the eye? Such women may, from the radical feminist view, be duped by patriarchy; but can they enter a state of higher spirituality when the demands of reality are so overwhelming?" [p. 225]

Ussher concludes that women's madness is about mental illness and misogynism. It is both, she says, and it is neither:

"It cannot be encapsulated within one explanation, one interpretation. As women, we are regulated through the discourse of madness. But the woman herself is real, as is her pain - we must not deny that. So we must listen to women." [p. 306]

The answers, Ussher argues, lie in interdisciplinary approaches that crosscut the boundaries between medical theory, literary theory, sociology, psychology, psychoanalysis, and anthropology. Similarly, treatment for mental illness must also be multidimensional in nature.