Skip to main content
Log in

The Evolution of Understanding Menopause in Clinical Treatment

  • Published:
Clinical Social Work Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper integrates the meanings created about menopause through a biopsychosocial perpective. Once understood only as a biological illness creating affective disorders, new paradigms provide understanding based on the psychological and social constructions of the process. History emphasizes a view of women experiencing increasing deficiency and loss, while modern interpretations view women as gaining new freedoms. Case material is presented to direct attention to the meanings of menopause as it emerges in the treatment process.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Benedek, T. (1973). Psychoanalytic investigations: Selected papers. (pp. 322-349). New York: Quadrangle/N.Y. Times Book Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowles, C. (1990). The menopausal experience: Sociocultural influences and theoretical models. In R. Formanek (Ed.), The meanings of menopause. New Jersey: Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brody, J. (1997). Drug researchers working to design customized estrogen. Science Times: The New York Times. 3/4, B9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deutsch, H. (1925). Psychoanalysis of the sexual functions of women. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 6.

  • — (1984). The menopause. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 65, 55-61.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (1945). The climacterium. The psychology of women: psychoanalytic interpretation: motherhood, II (pp. 456-491). New York: Grune and Stratton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickson, G. L. (1990). A feminist poststructuralist analysis of the knowledge of menopause. Advances in Nursing Science, 12, 15-30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, E. (1963). Childhood and society. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Formanek, R. (1990). Continuity and change and the “change of life” Premodern views of the menopause. In R. Formanek (Ed.), The meanings of menopause. New Jersey: Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gannon, L. (1990). Endocrinology of menopause. In R. Formanek (Ed.), The meanings of menopause. New Jersey: Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Germain, C. (1991). Human behavior in the social environment. New York: Columbia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, J.G. (1990). Psychosocial influences and life events at the time of menopause. In R. Formanek (Ed.), The meanings of menopause. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, H. (1990). A critical view of three psychoanalytic positions on menopause, In R. Formanek (Ed.), The meanings of menopause. New Jersey: Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, K. (1991). Doctor's stories. New Jersey: Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufert, P.A. (1982). Myth and menopause. Sociology of Health and Illness, 4, 141-166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lang, J. A. (1984). Notes toward a psychology of the feminine self. In P. Stepansky and A. Goldberg (Eds.), Kohut's legacy contributions to self psychology. New Jersey: Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lax, R. (1982). The expectable depressive climacteric reaction. Bulletin of the Meninger Clinic, 46(2), 151-167.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. (1993). The stories we live by. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • McQuaide, S. (1998). Opening spaces for alternative images and narratives of midlife women. Clinical Social Work Journal, 26(1), 39-54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neugarten, B. (1976). Middle age and aging. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, L. B. (1979). Women of a certain age: The midlife search for self. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saari, C. (1991). The creation of meanings in clinical social work. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scarf, M. (1980). Unfinished business: pressure points in the lives of women. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheehy, G. (1991). The silent passage. New York: Pocket Books.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Spira, M., Berger, B. The Evolution of Understanding Menopause in Clinical Treatment. Clinical Social Work Journal 27, 259–273 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022890219316

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022890219316

Navigation