Premenstrual syndrome as a western culture-specific disorder.
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) has a phenomenology resembling many culture-bound (culture-specific) syndromes described in the anthropological literature. Viewed as a culture-specific syndrome, PMS is an appropriate symbolic representation of conflicting societal expectations that women be both productive and reproductive. By simultaneously denying either alternative, PMS translates role conflict into a standardized cultural idiom. Thus, despite obvious biopsychological determinants, PMS is best understood as a sociocultural phenomenon illustrating both the special status of women in Western culture and the ethnocentrism of Western anthropology which heretofore has only recently begun to identify culture-specific syndromes in its own back yard.
Johnson
T M
TM
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.
D000124:Achievement; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D011293:Premenstrual Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D012098:Reproduction