英文摘要 |
This study focuses on the analysis of cultural factors involved in female psychopothology in the Chinese paternalistic structure in attempt to explain women’s higher rate of psychosomatic disorder. The socialization process which forms the social expectations, habits, and norms that together create a cooperative system for the formation of female psychopathology is explored. These social constructions are so prevalent that a Chinese woman under their sway have no way to escape, and so may fall into a psychosomatic disorder, even to the extent of paranoid disorder. This study is based on the case of a married middle-aged woman who requested psychological treatment. Using the data of 20 hours of narrative, and adopting the constructive approach to the cultural self and the feminist social constructionist approach, the pathological process for the case was analyzed. As a well-educated woman who had developed the functional independence during her teenage years, the case lacked the affective independence due to her protective patriarchal social education. After entering a paternalistic-oriented dominant married life, she faced conflict with the male-centered beliefs of shiao dao (filial piety) and sexuality and with a strong-arm approach for power display. Due to her persistence with traditional concepts of loyalty and chastity as well as the modern, equalitarian concept of family, she constantly experienced the entanglement type of conflict with her husband to the extent that she gradually lost her energy and almost collapsed into paranoid disorder. In addition to providing an interpretation of the dialectic between the self and the paternalistic culture that led to the disorder, this study suggests some feasible methods for women’s empowerment and self-development. |