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Feminist mental health activism in England, c. 1968-95
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This book provides the first in-depth examination of feminist mental health activism in England from c.1968-1995. It explores how feminist activists initially rejected Freud before using psychoanal...
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Feminist mental health activism in England, c.1968-1995 provides the first in-depth examination of feminist mental health activism in England, employing original oral history interviews alongside detailed case studies of unexplored feminist initiatives. It charts how feminist activists in the late 1960s initially rejected psychological approaches, before employing a range of therapies to understand themselves and support one another. This book charts the emergence of feminist mental health groups in the early 1970s, the development of feminist therapy across the 1980s, and the influence of feminist politics on national charity Mind in the 1990s. It examines what participation in feminist activism felt like; demonstrating how these emotions have influenced the construction of its history. The book simultaneously forges a new direction in the history of mental healthcare in postwar England, establishing how feminists’ grassroots support for women redefined 'community care'.

Price: £25.00
Pages: 280
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Series: Gender in History
Publication Date:
20 January 2026
ISBN: 9781526194879
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
MEDICAL / History, History of medicine, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century, MEDICAL / Mental Health, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory, Feminism and feminist theory, Gender studies: women and girls

'Kate Mahoney offers an engaging account of feminist mental health activism in twentieth-century England... Feminist Mental Health Activism contributes to disability history by contextualizing the experiences of psychiatric disability in a framework of feminism, activism, and the shifting scene of mental health care in England.' - H-Disability
Introduction
1 Challenging Freud: opposition to psychology and psychiatry in the early Women’s Liberation Movement
2 Psychotherapy and self-help: the London Women’s Liberation Workshop Psychology Group
3 A foundation for feminist therapy: the Women’s Therapy Centre
4 Women and MIND: the influence of feminist politics on a national mental health charity
Conclusion
Biographical notes on interviewees
Bibliography