Illness and Power: Women's Mental Disorders and the Battle between the Sexes - Hardcover

"An important book...treats alternative explanations for women's mental disorders with crisp, critical insight, culling out the wrongheaded and embracing valid points of view where they exist." -Linda Garfield,Stanford University Medical Center "Provocative . . . . Chock full of interesting, colorful anecdotes and observations. Wenegrat is one of the few psychiatrists who has dared to apply evolutionary thinking to everyday clinical practice." -Judith Eve Lipton, M.D.

Since ancient times, physicians have believed that women are especially vulnerable to certain mental illnesses. Contemporary research confirms that women are indeed more susceptible than men to anxiety, depression, multiple personality, and eating disorders, and several forms of what used to be called hysteria.

Why are these disorders more prevalent in women? Brant Wenegrat convincingly asserts that women's excess risk stems from a lack of social power. He reviews women's social power from an evolutionary and cross-cultural perspective and places mental disorders in the context of evolution and societal organization. In this comprehensive look at mental disorders commonly associated with women, Brant Wenegrat convincingly asserts that women's excess risk stems from a lack of social power.