Women and the Ownership of PMS: The Structuring of a Psychiatric Disorder (Social Problems and Social Issues)

This is the first book-length account of the controversy preceding and following the APA’s decision in 1986 to include a premenstrually related diagnosis in its revised diagnostic manual, DSM III-R. Figert examines why the decision was controversial and consequential in three main domains where people, their interests, and claims to ownership coincide: the Health and Mental Health Domain, the Woman Domain, and the Science Domain.

Anne E. Figert is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Loyola University, Chicago. Dr. Figert received her Ph.D. from Indiana University at Bloom­ington. She is the author of publications on the relationship of science and sociology as well as women and health.