As Phyllis Chesler warned us in 1974, gender bias has accompanied psychiatric power throughout its history. Years later, in 2005, in the last annotated edition of Women and Madness , the author insisted on the persistence of this bias, which even today, 50 years later, seems to remain unchanged. Authors such as Ussher, Caplan, Margot Pujal and many others were situated in that same space. With their differences and nuances, they all converge on the same point: gender problems and discomforts produce deep suffering. This suffering leaves marks on our bodies and our behavior.
Tag: Women
Mao: Women
A man in China is usually subjected to the domination of three systems of authority [political authority, family authority and religious authority]…. As for women, in addition to being dominated by these three systems of authority, they are also dominated by the men (the authority of the husband). These four authorities – political, family, religious and masculine – are the embodiment of the whole feudal-patriarchal ideology and system, and are the four thick ropes binding the Chinese people, particularly the peasants. How the peasants have overthrown the political authority of the landlords in the countryside has been described above. The political authority of the landlords is the backbone of all the other systems of authority. With that overturned the family authority, the religious authority and the authority of the husband all begin to totter…. As to the authority of the husband, this has always been weaker among the poor peasants because, out of economic necessity, their womenfolk have to do more manual labour than the women of the richer classes and therefore have more say and greater power of decision in family matters. With the increasing bankruptcy of the rural economy in recent years, the basis for men’s domination over women has already been undermined. With the rise of the peasant movement, the women in many places have now begun to organize rural women’s associations; the opportunity has come for them to lift up their heads, and the authority of the husband is getting shakier every day. In a word, the whole feudal-patriarchal ideology and system is tottering with the growth of the peasants’ power.
“Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan” (March 1927), Selected Works, Vol. I, pp. 44-46.*
The Limits of Liberal History
You can’t tell the story of America without the story of labor…
Communism and the Family
Women’s role in production: its effect upon the family
Will the family continue to exist under communism? Will the family remain in the same form? These questions are troubling many women of the working class and worrying their menfolk as well. Life is changing before our very eyes; old habits and customs are dying out, and the whole life of the proletarian family is developing in a way that is new and unfamiliar and, in the eyes of some, “bizarre”. No wonder that working women are beginning to think these questions over. Another fact that invites attention is that divorce has been made easier in Soviet Russia. The decree of the Council of People’s Commissars issued on 18 December 1917 means that divorce is, no longer a luxury that only the rich can afford; henceforth, a working woman will not have to petition for months or even for years to secure the right to live separately from a husband who beats her and makes her life a misery with his drunkenness and uncouth behaviour. Divorce by mutual agreement now takes no more than a week or two to obtain. Women who are unhappy in their married life welcome this easy divorce. But others, particularly those who are used to looking upon their husband as “breadwinners”, are frightened. They have not yet understood that a woman must accustom herself to seek and find support in the collective and in society, and not from the individual man.
Related:
Family Code On Marriage, The Family, And Guardianship
Read More »Placebo effect for all psychiatric diagnoses “of considerable magnitude”
In a new study, researchers found huge improvements in psychiatric symptoms on placebo alone, particularly for depression and anxiety. They included the 10 least biased, most recent randomised controlled trials for nine common diagnoses in their attempt to quantify the improvements that could be expected without treatment.
Placebo effect for all psychiatric diagnoses “of considerable magnitude” (archived)
Thomas Sankara: Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle
It is true that both the woman and the male worker are condemned to silence by their exploitation. But under the current system, the worker’s wife is also condemned to silence by her worker-husband. In other words, in addition to the class exploitation common to both of them, women must confront a particular set of relations that exist between them and men, relations of conflict and violence that use physical differences as their pretext.
Thomas Sankara, Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle (PDF)
Quotes:
Read More »Communist Party of Great Britain’s statement on prostitution
Communist Party statement on prostitution
“…for the rest it is self-evident that the abolition of the present system of production must bring with it the abolition of the community of women springing from the system i.e. of prostitution both public and private!”
(Marx & Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848)
As US Aid Shipments Begin, Gaza Pier Denounced as ‘PR Move’
Reading Update: 03-08-2024a
I was able to listen to two Chapters of Capitalism and Disability, earlier. I’ve been experiencing quite a bit of pain, lately. When I’m in pain, I can’t concentrate, so I didn’t even attempt to read The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Hopefully, the pain subsides some, soon.
In other news, I found this funny. Fairbanks Morse Defense isn’t far from me, so I liked their Facebook page to stay up-to-date. They make engines for naval vessels. The Little Crappy Ships are the only ones that I’m aware of (one reason why I’m interested in them). In fact, those ships were made at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard up North. Someday, I’ll have to look into Fairbanks Morse’s history.
Anyway, good night or morning, depending on your sleep schedule.
Reading Update: 03-03-2024
I finished listening to Chapter 9 of Capitalism and Disability. I haven’t attempted reading any of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State yet. Maybe later tonight.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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