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Premenstrual Syndrome As Scientific And Cultural Fact Summary

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“Premenstrual Syndrome as Scientific and Cultural Artifact” by Anne E. Figert analyzes various definitions of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) from scientific, feminist, cultural, and economic perspectives in order to determine whether or not PMS is “real”. The inclusion of a PMS-related diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) further makes women question if they are truly experiencing PMS or if they are mentally ill. Figert argues that PMS is in fact real due to the fact that it has been recognized as such, with various attempts to define it—even though there is no consistent or agreed upon definition. Figert begins by exploring the science of PMS, which was not recognized as a real medical diagnosis and condition until the twentieth century. Women had been told that such a disease did not exist …show more content…

English doctor Katharina Dalton studied PMS for over forty years, and served as an expert in a murder trial in 1981 in which she explained that the defendant was not responsible for committing murder because she suffered from a severe form of PMS. The trials attracted a great deal of media attention, contributing to the acceptance of PMS as a medical condition. “After years of telling women their problems were ‘all in the head’, the proportion of doctors who accepted PMS as a real disease reached critical mass” (qtd. in Figert 134). Feminists, however, view the labeling of this condition as giving doctors and scientists expert legitimacy over women’s bodies. As a result, feminist scientists took over most of the research being conducted in order to

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