Subtitle: Schizophrenic Women in the 1950s
Author: Carol A.B. Warren
Subject: Womens Studies/Sociology/Psychiatry and Psychology
Paper ISBN 0-8135-1689-7
Pages: 283 pp.

"An important contribution to the study of mental illness, gender roles, and family interaction. . . . an insightful and well-written book demonstrating the pervasive consequences of gender roles for the deepest levels of mind and emotion."--American Journal of Sociology

"Opens a window onto the lives of the mentally ill and their families."--Women's Review of Books

"Warren's analysis is painstaking and illuminating, and there is plenty of material here to interest those concerned with issues of gender and mental illness."--Times Higher Education Supplement

"The women make the author's major points in a riveting fashion, speaking eloquently of enforced dependency and subjugation, the helplessness of rigid and constantly reinforced gender-role boundaries, and outright manipulation and abuse by their husbands."--Contemporary Psychology

"Can marriage make women go crazy? Carol Warren addresses this question by emphasizing the connections between gender-stereotypical behavior and the institutionalization of married women in the 1950s, using interviews collected . . . during 1957-61. . . . An interesting sociological reworking of the original psychologically-oriented interpretation of the interviews."--Oral History Review

Carol A. B. Warren is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas and the author of The Court of Last Resort: Mental Illness and the Law.