Resisting the mantle of the monstrous feminine : women's construction and experience of premenstrual embodiment

The female reproductive body is positioned as abject, as other, as site of defciency and disease, the epitome of the ‘monstrous feminine.’ Premenstrual change in emotion, behavior or embodied sensation is positioned as a sign of madness within, necessitating restraint and control on the part of the women experiencing it (Ussher 2006). Breakdown in this control through manifestation of ‘symptoms’ is diagnosed as PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) or PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder), a pathology deserving of ‘treatment.’ In this chapter, we adopt a feminist material-discursive theoretical framework to examine the role of premenstrual embodiment in relation to women’s adoption of the subject position of monstrous feminine, drawing on interviews we have conducted with women who self-diagnose as ‘PMS sufferers.’ We theorize women’s self-positioning as subjectifcation, wherein women take up cultural discourse associated with idealized femininity and the reproductive body, resulting in self-objectifcation, distress, and self-condemnation. However, women can resist negative cultural constructions of premenstrual embodiment and the subsequent self-policing. We describe the impact of women-centered psychological therapy which increases awareness of embodied change, and leads to greater acceptance of the premenstrual body and greater self-care, which serves to reduce premenstrual distress

Data-Based clinical decision making in the treatment of an adolescent with severe conduct problems

This case illustrates the contributions of continuous data monitoring to clinical decision making in the treatment of an adolescent with severe conduct problems. Treatment began with a comprehensive point system that required the continual monitoring of a range of target behaviors. Beginning each session with a review of graphs of the monitored behaviors helped keep the sessions focused and rewarded the client and his parents with visual feedback of their progress. A subjective rating system was also implemented in which the client’s parents quantified their evaluations of his overall behavior on a daily basis. This system enhanced the client’s parents’ sensitivity to the relationship between his observable behavior and their subjective evaluations of him. It also helped the therapists determine when the point system had reached the peak of its effectiveness and conclude that a family-based treatment approach was needed. As part of family-based treatment, a rating scale was developed that assisted the therapists in conducting family problem-solving training and allowed for continued evaluations of the family’s progress in learning key skills