Title: Psychologising dissent: psychiatric labelling and control.

POPLINE Document Number: 123190

Author(s):

Dhanda A

Source citation:

In: No safe spaces. Report of a workshop on violence against women, March 27-28, 1995, [edited by] Malavika Karlekar with Anuja Agrawal and Maithili Ganjoo. New Delhi, India, Centre for Women's Development Studies, 1995. :7-9.

Abstract:

This document summarizes the second presentation in a session on psychosocial and historical perspectives of violence against women held during a workshop in India in 1995. This presentation stressed the difficulties in counseling abuse victims. Counselors must avoid the pitfalls of "psychologizing" which may lead them to view a real account as delusionary, hide their inability to handle a situation, or address the symptom and not the cause of the problem. Psychologizing may allow society to convince itself that a crime has not occurred. This occurred in the case of a young married woman who was poisoned. After two courts sentenced the husband to death, the Supreme Court reinterpreted the evidence and decided that the wife committed suicide. How a case is labeled has a great deal to do with how it is examined, analyzed, and decided. Labeling can lead to disempowerment for women, and it is rarely acknowledged that many situations lead to the legal category of mental unsoundness. Discussion centered on the fact that the legal system will remain inadequate as long as seeking counseling can be held against a woman.

Keywords:

India
Summary Report
Conferences and Congresses
Workshops
Counseling
Court Decision
Homicide
Case Studies
Violence
Domestic Violence
Gender Issues
Gender Relations
Psychosocial Factors
Communication
Asia, Southern
Asia
Developing Countries
Education
Clinic Activities
Program Activities
Programs
Organization and Administration
Litigation
Crime
Social Problems
Studies
Research Methodology
Behavior