Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn

20 reviews

catherinedsharp's review against another edition

informative sad fast-paced

4.25

Highly informative book. Quite emotional and upsetting at times but really important to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Racism

chronically_theo's review against another edition

emotional informative sad

3.75

This book was incredibly hard to read. Reading about how people like you have been violated and dismissed never gets easier. It is interesting though if you are in the right headspace 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Xenophobia, Rape, Racism, Misogyny, Ableism, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Classism, Chronic illness, Body shaming, Medical trauma, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, Death, Confinement, Child death, and Cancer

radfordmanor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Infidelity, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Classism, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Abortion, Rape, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Sexual content, Drug use, and Miscarriage

catherineleigh's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Pregnancy, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Abortion, Ableism, Chronic illness, and Classism

Minor: Infertility, Rape, and Cancer

solliereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

What an absolutely vital and incredible read! This book has made me totally rethink my approach to medical misogyny and medical malpractice as a direct result of the disbelief of women and their experiences with pain. I've suffered with unexplained chronic pain for a long time, and I've always been turned away when I attempted to seek help, support and understanding of the pain and exhaustion that no professional has ever seemed to want to touch with a five-foot pole. Reading this book felt like a warm hug - true, the facts are harrowing, particularly those regarding the experiences of women of colour and their repeated erasures from feminist movements, as well as their especially harsh experiences with medical malpractice and being treated as experimental patients without their expressed knowledge or consent, but every single fact has been included in this book to scream out that all women, regardless of race and class, deserve and demand to be believed by the professional practitioners that hold their lives in their hands.

I really appreciated, too, having a clear timeline of events that provide much-needed context regarding various issues in women's health. It was by no means an easy read, and there were times where I was so disgusted by the things women have gone through that I wanted to put the book away, but it was certainly an immensely helpful one. Cleghorn has clearly gone to great lengths to write a text of such great importance on the subject of medical misogyny, and everything in her book is backed up by a massive amount of citations, none of which are pointlessly crammed in there either. I truly look forward to reading her upcoming book in 2024 - MOTHERS: An Intimate History - and I fully expect it to be just as crucial a read as this was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Abortion, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Infertility, and Chronic illness

Minor: Miscarriage, Rape, and Eating disorder

nialiversuch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Body horror, Abortion, Drug use, Cancer, Medical content, Racism, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Death, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Child death, Chronic illness, Body shaming, Classism, and Addiction

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Panic attacks/disorders

thania's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

Very good and informative book. It was clearly written with reference to much research and the way the information was presented was coherent. I was able to witness throug this book the horrors of medical misogyny and get frustrated over the repeat offences on women’s rights that just kept happening for the same convoluted reasons. Other than that, I wish she put in headers for each new disease though or didn’t jump through years so much. I understand that in most cases it is necessary but it can get quite confusing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Torture

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

burdasnest's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

 This book made me feel seen and connected to all of the women in our time and the past who suffered medically because of their sex. Cleghorn acknowledges intersectionality and inequity well, but keep in mind that this is focused on western medical history and knowledge and cisgender women. She also emphasizes the absolute importance of the myriad issues we have before us as unwell women. I feel called to advocate and act by this book, and think that it should be required in health curriculum in higher education from physiology to public health. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Abortion, Miscarriage, Blood, Body shaming, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Rape, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Slavery

arachan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

5.0

I had to read this book in chunks.  It's a very honest, very thorough look at the way medicine has persistently failed women and people with uteruses.  (Note on that: Cleghorn does not discount trans experience but given the historical record and medicine have been framed through the binary, women is the term used.)

This is a book that baffles and outrages me.  So much that could have been done differently, if the dominant culture was willing to value women and so much of what women got diagnosed was 'I can't be bothered'.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Racism, and Medical content

allisonwonderlandreads's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

Unwell Women is a sweeping historical look at how women have suffered as patients at the hands of Western medicine, from ancient Greece to present. Peppered with historical case studies and the author's own heart-wrenching journey to a lupus diagnosis, the voices of women rise up through the narrative to be heard where they are so frequently suppressed.

Cleghorn's dry humor was much appreciated throughout this journey to balance the horrific nature of the trends and stories she shares. I found the ancient history amusing, with the Greek concept of "the wandering womb" especially hilarious. But the lived realities of these experiences are far from funny. Seeing medical knowledge peeled back to reveal the insidious tentacles of patriarchy creeping through everything was somehow both liberating and disheartening. Women have survived some horrible shit, sometimes with no help from doctors, and others in spite of the very medical attention meant to cure their ills.

Of the many topics covered, here are just a few that will stay with me:

 • hysteria, hormones, and the other excuses to dismiss women's pain altogether or root it in psychology
 • abortion, forced sterilization, birth control, eugenics, and all the ways women's reproduction is more valued than her own well-being and decided by the medical apparatus
 • the way medical knowledge has been accrued without female input or consent in so many cases -- I was especially horrified by accounts of research done on enslaved Black American women and the more recent trials of The Pill on Puerto Rican women without knowledge of the risks
 • the lack of knowledge, empathy, and support for women with chronic pain conditions

This is far from a complete history, but I don't think that's feasible for one book, anyway. It's largely focused on the US and UK, but I was relieved that the author addresses race, class, and gender identity as intersectional factors in women's health. I will carry these thoughts into my own experiences as a patient, and I want to learn even more about this topic and advocacy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Abortion, Cancer, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Torture