Fall2025

Part of the course will focus on examining the history of abnormal psychology from the perspective of women’s experiences within this field.  We will explore the role that psychiatry has played in defining and shaping what has been considered ‘normal female’ as opposed to ‘normal male’ behaviour. We will look into the history of conceptualising the ‘female madness’ and the emergence of diagnostic categories such as 'neurasthenia’ and ‘hysteria’ which were frequently applied to women in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  We will discuss biological explanations used to explain mental disorders in women and associated psychiatric practices of the past. 

The course looks at how gender roles and stereotypes may have contributed to definitions of mental illness with varied impacts on women and men. For example, we will read materials about how women who deviated from their ascribed gender roles were continuously likely to be categorised as ‘insane’. In the second part of the course, our focus will be on how diagnoses have changed over time and the modern day  gender biases still found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Intersections of gender with race, class and sexual subjectivity in the history of abnormal psychology will be examined throughout the course. 

The course is designed as interactive sessions in which each class builds upon in-class activities, reflections on readings and assignments. While there will be some material which will be delivered in the form of overview lectures, we will participate in various forms of active learning during classes. Classes will have time set aside for working on assignments.