Friday 21 November 2014

The Disruptive Discourse of Chronic Pelvic Pain

An academic article rather than a personal post, originally written in 2004 with a minor update to the Epilogue. This article explores how the structural framework of the doctor-patient relationship breaks down when women have unexplained Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP), and explores some of the gender prejudices underlying this through a textual analysis of three books on chronic pelvic pain. These books were not specifically chosen for their gender prejudice; they were all I could find in the Bodleian Library on the subject of CPP in 2004.

Abstract

Chronic Pelvic Pain challenges the structural framework of pain, which both patient and doctor attempt to recuperate. Both patient and doctor rely on archetypal roles (the figure of the Doctor, the figure of the Woman), which need to be reconsidered for treatment to progress. The doctor's attempt to recuperate the framework relies on unsubstantiated psychogenic diagnoses and implicit blame, grounded in Freudian views of women; the patient's counterstroke is to withhold psychogenic information, including potentially valuable data on hormonal side-effects.  For treatment to progress and a successful framework to be recovered, both the patient and doctor roles need to be rethought.

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