Women

Women who suffer from mental illness find it difficult to publicly articulate their experiences. Many women have turned to autobiography as a way to proclaim their experiences with mental illness, while at the same time reclaiming their sense of self This essay analyzes three such autobiographies: Kate Millett's The Loony-Bin Trip, Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted, and Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness. My analysis is guided by feminist approaches to autobiography. Specifically, Sidonie Smith's concept of the "autobiographical manifesto" is outlined and applied. The essay reveals that an autobiography in the form of a manifesto is an effective tool of discursive resistance.

All of the articles and collections of work come together to explore the affects that a patriarchal society has affected mental health in regards to women.   In several of the collections of work discuss the different causes and treatments giving to women.   In many it discusses new psychological problems women face today that are stemmed from the past.   We have lived in a patriarchal society for forever but nothing was really done until the feminist movement in fifties and sixties.   During that time lots of treatments and illness in regards to women were developed.   The treatments and diagnosis were given by men in power. Many men fell into the area of mental health during that time and opportunities for experimental treatments emerged. Because these doctors had no formal training in the area, many followed their own stipulations or beliefs about mental illness and tested their theories on patients in asylums.   Seeing as a lot of the patients were women, they experiments were used on them.   Not to mention women during this time were deemed to be highly susceptible to becoming mentally ill as they did not have the mental capacity of men.
That risk grew greatly if the woman attempted to better herself through education. Women often suppressed their feelings...