{"title":"From vulnerability to agency: The management and medicalization of mental health in women and men","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2024.102953","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In many instances, the medical approach to mental health issues remains a top-down process where patients are expected to act as purely passive agents. Yet, it is vital to recognize the agency individuals display in the medicalization of mental distress, from experiencing emotional suffering to becoming mental health patients engaged in their treatment. This qualitative study aims to describe the various forms of agency that men and women deploy to actively manage their emotional distress. Findings suggest a central role of agency in the entire process, revealing significant gender differences in recognizing and externalizing mental distress, deciding to seek medical help, managing of mental health diagnosis and psychotropic prescription, and the changes in patients´ subjective experience and social contexts. Highlighting these aspects, the study discusses the need for a nuanced and broader understanding of agency within the mental health field.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539524000918/pdfft?md5=2a36b238c9524a28d70401689dc1d1d0&pid=1-s2.0-S0277539524000918-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Womens Studies International Forum","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539524000918","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"WOMENS STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In many instances, the medical approach to mental health issues remains a top-down process where patients are expected to act as purely passive agents. Yet, it is vital to recognize the agency individuals display in the medicalization of mental distress, from experiencing emotional suffering to becoming mental health patients engaged in their treatment. This qualitative study aims to describe the various forms of agency that men and women deploy to actively manage their emotional distress. Findings suggest a central role of agency in the entire process, revealing significant gender differences in recognizing and externalizing mental distress, deciding to seek medical help, managing of mental health diagnosis and psychotropic prescription, and the changes in patients´ subjective experience and social contexts. Highlighting these aspects, the study discusses the need for a nuanced and broader understanding of agency within the mental health field.
期刊介绍:
Women"s Studies International Forum (formerly Women"s Studies International Quarterly, established in 1978) is a bimonthly journal to aid the distribution and exchange of feminist research in the multidisciplinary, international area of women"s studies and in feminist research in other disciplines. The policy of the journal is to establish a feminist forum for discussion and debate. The journal seeks to critique and reconceptualize existing knowledge, to examine and re-evaluate the manner in which knowledge is produced and distributed, and to assess the implications this has for women"s lives.