Introduction 1 Reflections on the Desperate Housewife 2 The Art of Marriage: Marriage and Mothering during the Post-War Period 3 The Housewife's Day: Personal Accounts of Housewifery and Mothering 4 Lightening Troubled Minds:... more
Introduction 1 Reflections on the Desperate Housewife 2 The Art of Marriage: Marriage and Mothering during the Post-War Period 3 The Housewife's Day: Personal Accounts of Housewifery and Mothering 4 Lightening Troubled Minds: Mid-Twentieth Century Medical Understandings of Affective Disorder 5 Not Something You Talk About: Personal Accounts of Anxiety and Depression 6 For Ladies in Distress: Representations of Anxiety and Depression in the Medical and Popular Press Conclusion
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Research Interests:
autobiographical writing and oral history interviews. Approaching memory as a social and cultural phenomenon, Thomson presents a lucid discussion of how it works; this includes the role of storytelling in consolidating long-standing, as... more
autobiographical writing and oral history interviews. Approaching memory as a social and cultural phenomenon, Thomson presents a lucid discussion of how it works; this includes the role of storytelling in consolidating long-standing, as opposed to transient, memories. Narratives of migration are viewed within broader life stories as the, now elderly, women remember their experiences as an ‘adventure story’ (p. 304). Thomson traces how women’s migration stories are ‘reframed’ by their subsequent life experiences, and changing ideas and languages, but also how some recollections are too painful or ‘jagged’ to fit comfortably into their narratives (p. 305). Moving Stories is a richly textured and readable account of four women’s transformative experiences of migration. It also provides a nuanced analysis of how experiences, aspirations, subjectivity, identity and memory are constructed and articulated through a range of personal stories in pictures, texts and the spoken word. This book will be of interest to historians of migration and women’s lives in the 1950s and 1960s, and a valuable text for all scholars interested in the personal narratives through which identities and histories are constructed.
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been... more
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been consistently so throughout the post-war period with current figures suggesting that women are approximately twice more likely to suffer from affective disorders than men. However, this book suggests that the statistical landscape reveals only part of the story. Currently, 75 per cent of suicides are among men, and this trend can also be traced back historically to data that suggests this has been the case since the beginning of the twentieth-century. This book suggests that male psychological illness was in fact no less common, but that it emerged in complex ways and was understood differently in response to prevailing cultural and medical forces. The book explores a host of medical, cultural and social factors that raise important questions about histori...
Research Interests:
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been... more
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been consistently so throughout the post-war period with current figures suggesting that women are approximately twice more likely to suffer from affective disorders than men. However, this book suggests that the statistical landscape reveals only part of the story. Currently, 75 per cent of suicides are among men, and this trend can also be traced back historically to data that suggests this has been the case since the beginning of the twentieth-century. This book suggests that male psychological illness was in fact no less common, but that it emerged in complex ways and was understood differently in response to prevailing cultural and medical forces. The book explores a host of medical, cultural and social factors that raise important questions about historical and current perceptions of gender and mental illness
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been... more
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been consistently so throughout the post-war period with current figures suggesting that women are approximately twice more likely to suffer from affective disorders than men. However, this book suggests that the statistical landscape reveals only part of the story. Currently, 75 per cent of suicides are among men, and this trend can also be traced back historically to data that suggests this has been the case since the beginning of the twentieth-century. This book suggests that male psychological illness was in fact no less common, but that it emerged in complex ways and was understood differently in response to prevailing cultural and medical forces. The book explores a host of medical, cultural and social factors that raise important questions about histori...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been... more
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been consistently so throughout the post-war period with current figures suggesting that women are approximately twice more likely to suffer from affective disorders than men. However, this book suggests that the statistical landscape reveals only part of the story. Currently, 75 per cent of suicides are among men, and this trend can also be traced back historically to data that suggests this has been the case since the beginning of the twentieth-century. This book suggests that male psychological illness was in fact no less common, but that it emerged in complex ways and was understood differently in response to prevailing cultural and medical forces. The book explores a host of medical, cultural and social factors that raise important questions about histori...
Research Interests:
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been... more
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been consistently so throughout the post-war period with current figures suggesting that women are approximately twice more likely to suffer from affective disorders than men. However, this book suggests that the statistical landscape reveals only part of the story. Currently, 75 per cent of suicides are among men, and this trend can also be traced back historically to data that suggests this has been the case since the beginning of the twentieth-century. This book suggests that male psychological illness was in fact no less common, but that it emerged in complex ways and was understood differently in response to prevailing cultural and medical forces. The book explores a host of medical, cultural and social factors that raise important questions about histori...
Research Interests:
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been... more
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been consistently so throughout the post-war period with current figures suggesting that women are approximately twice more likely to suffer from affective disorders than men. However, this book suggests that the statistical landscape reveals only part of the story. Currently, 75 per cent of suicides are among men, and this trend can also be traced back historically to data that suggests this has been the case since the beginning of the twentieth-century. This book suggests that male psychological illness was in fact no less common, but that it emerged in complex ways and was understood differently in response to prevailing cultural and medical forces. The book explores a host of medical, cultural and social factors that raise important questions about histori...
Research Interests:
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been... more
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been consistently so throughout the post-war period with current figures suggesting that women are approximately twice more likely to suffer from affective disorders than men. However, this book suggests that the statistical landscape reveals only part of the story. Currently, 75 per cent of suicides are among men, and this trend can also be traced back historically to data that suggests this has been the case since the beginning of the twentieth-century. This book suggests that male psychological illness was in fact no less common, but that it emerged in complex ways and was understood differently in response to prevailing cultural and medical forces. The book explores a host of medical, cultural and social factors that raise important questions about histori...
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been... more
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been consistently so throughout the post-war period with current figures suggesting that women are approximately twice more likely to suffer from affective disorders than men. However, this book suggests that the statistical landscape reveals only part of the story. Currently, 75 per cent of suicides are among men, and this trend can also be traced back historically to data that suggests this has been the case since the beginning of the twentieth-century. This book suggests that male psychological illness was in fact no less common, but that it emerged in complex ways and was understood differently in response to prevailing cultural and medical forces. The book explores a host of medical, cultural and social factors that raise important questions about histori...
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Research Interests:
This article examines the recollections of middle-class British housewives who experienced symptoms of neurosis, anxiety or depression during the post Second World War period. It specifically addresses the claim made by feminist... more
This article examines the recollections of middle-class British housewives who experienced symptoms of neurosis, anxiety or depression during the post Second World War period. It specifically addresses the claim made by feminist commentators, that the banality and stultification of the domestic role caused mental illness in women. The oral testimonies suggest that, in many cases, housewives of the 1950s and 1960s found contentment in their role, identifying instead problematic interpersonal relationships or trauma during childhood as the cause of their symptoms. The article argues that the causes of anxiety and depression were more complex than has previously been suggested and seeks to provide a more sophisticated analysis of women's experience.
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Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been... more
Statistically, women appear to suffer more frequently from depressive and anxiety disorders, featuring more regularly in primary care figures for consultations, diagnoses and prescriptions for psychotropic medication. This has been consistently so throughout the post-war period with current figures suggesting that women are approximately twice more likely to suffer from affective disorders than men. However, this book suggests that the statistical landscape reveals only part of the story. Currently, 75 per cent of suicides are among men, and this trend can also be traced back historically to data that suggests this has been the case since the beginning of the twentieth-century. This book suggests that male psychological illness was in fact no less common, but that it emerged in complex ways and was understood differently in response to prevailing cultural and medical forces. The book explores a host of medical, cultural and social factors that raise important questions about histori...
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In 1942, the Medical Research Council’s Industrial Health Research Board initiated an investigation, led by Dr Russell Fraser and Dr Elizabeth Bunbury, into neurotic illness as a cause of absence from work. Prompted by concerns about... more
In 1942, the Medical Research Council’s Industrial Health Research Board initiated an investigation, led by Dr Russell Fraser and Dr Elizabeth Bunbury, into neurotic illness as a cause of absence from work. Prompted by concerns about industrial efficiency during wartime, the research focused on light and medium engineering industries from Birmingham and Greater London and attempted to gauge the ‘true incidence’ of the condition and ‘its effects on production’.1 Their study of 3,000 workers found that 9.1 per cent of male workers and 13 per cent of female workers had suffered from what was described as ‘definite’ neurosis.2 The number of male cases uncovered in this study was significantly higher than those that were to emerge later in studies during the 1950s and 1960s from general practice, which broadly suggested a female to male ratio of 2:1. Once again, a familiar feature of this study was that greater numbers of men were diagnosed with what Fraser described as ‘disabling psycho...