The book Against All Odds: Psychosocial Distress and Healing Among Women, by Mahima Nayar makes a brave effort to deconstruct mental illness in women living in urban ghettos (low-income neighbourhoods of large cities). Women in these localities go through extreme social suffering caused by oppressive socio-economic conditions and burden of both house and paid work leads to mental illness. The thrust of the book is to demystify mental illness in this class of women; while questioning the very use of term ‘mental illness’ which individualises and decontextualises the illness from its psychosocial aetiological roots. The entire spectrum of healing options availed by mentally ill women, their relative merits and demerits in alleviating symptoms of distress and helping survival in an environment that marginalises them is discussed in the book. Mahima Nayar builds a case of how the interweaving of forces of modernisation and tradition brutalise women causing extreme ‘psychosocial distress’ which somaticises and causes functional disability. The strength of the book lies in the ethnographic approach and an evolving reflexive methodology which the author uses to carefully weave life stories of women experiencing psychosocial distress. What emerges is the existence of the double tragedy in life of suffering woman caused not just by poverty, domestic violence, oppressive patriarchal systems and dual burden of house and paid work; but also due to dehumanising forces of urbanisation and globalisation that hurt women more. Often because of the stressors the women suffer from mental illness and become dysfunctional; and as a consequence may be stigmatised, abandoned and neglected by the family.

中文翻译：

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书评：Mahima Nayar（主编），反对所有的可能性：妇女的社会心理困扰和康复

《反对万无一失的书：妇女的社会心理困扰和康复》由Mahima Nayar撰写，她勇敢地努力消除了居住在城市贫民窟（大城市的低收入社区）中的妇女的精神疾病。这些地区的妇女由于社会经济条件恶劣而遭受极端的社会苦难，家庭工作和有偿工作的负担都导致精神疾病。这本书的目的是要揭开这类女性精神疾病的神秘面纱。同时质疑“心理疾病”一词的使用，该术语使疾病从其心理社会病因学根源个性化和脱上下文化。该书讨论了精神病患者可获得的全部治疗选择，其在缓解痛苦症状和帮助边缘化环境中生存方面的相对优缺点。Mahima Nayar提出了一个案例，说明现代化力量与传统力量的交织如何使妇女遭受极端的“心理困扰”，从而使躯体化并导致功能障碍。该书的优势在于人种志方法和不断发展的反思方法，作者使用该方法精心编织了遭受社会心理困扰的妇女的生活故事。结果是受苦妇女的生活存在着双重悲剧，这不仅是由于贫穷，家庭暴力，父权制压迫以及住房和有偿工作的双重负担所造成的；也是由于城市化和全球化的非人道化力量对妇女的伤害更大。通常，由于压力的原因，妇女患有精神疾病并变得功能失调。结果可能会被家人污蔑，抛弃和忽视。