This book conceptualizes the diagnosis ‘Social Anxiety Disorder’ (SAD) in women as a rational response to life in postfeminist, neoliberal, twenty-first century Britain. By speaking to women with this diagnosis, and drawing on the author’s lived experience, it investigates the interplay between women’s social anxiety and Western culture. It argues that societal factors are implicated in women’s mental distress to a far greater extent than dominant (especially psychiatric) narratives would hold—narratives which, premised on individual pathology, often present a biologically reductionist and musicalized account. Through deploying a unique blend of feminism and anti-psychiatry, this book critiques the framework which exists around diagnosing and treating SAD, but without dismissing distress. Inspired by feminist critiques of other gendered psychiatric diagnoses, such as Anorexia Nervosa, it conceptualizes ‘SAD’ in women as a ‘culture-bound syndrome’.

This book will interest students and scholars of gender studies and sociology.