This book investigates the historical and contemporary construction of 'madness' as a gendered concept used to pathologize women's behavior. Jane M. Ussher, a professor of women's health psychology, utilizes a critical discourse analysis to examine how medical, psychiatric, and social institutions have historically defined women's distress. She argues that the diagnosis of mental illness in women often functions as a mechanism of social control rather than a purely objective medical assessment. The text draws upon extensive historical records, clinical case studies, and feminist theory to deconstruct the binary between sanity and madness.

Experts in gender studies and clinical psychology recognize this work as a significant contribution to the critique of traditional psychiatric models. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which requires a foundational understanding of feminist theory and critical psychology to fully engage with the author's arguments.