Why we should avoid the use of the term “Post-Abortion Syndrome” : commentary on Boulind and Edwards (2008)

Macleod, Catriona I

Title: Why we should avoid the use of the term “Post-Abortion Syndrome” : commentary on Boulind and Edwards (2008)
Creator: Macleod, Catriona I
Date Issued: 2009
Date: 2009
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6277
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008277
Description: Boulind and Edwards (2008) present a case study of Grace, a women suffering, in their words, from post-abortion syndrome (PAS). In this commentary I argue that while Boulind and Edwards’ (2008) report is useful in terms of documenting the therapeutic processes engaged in, they would have been better served in not hanging the distress experienced by Grace on the diagnostic category of post-abortion syndrome. Reasons for this are that: PAS is not a recognised category of diagnosis, despite having been initially proposed in 1981; applying a PTSD framework to abortion is questionable; PAS focuses attention on the abortion itself in isolation from the fact that abortion occurs in the context of severely problematic pregnancies and other important socio-cultural stressors; PAS, in the very manner in which it is formulated, invokes to a very complex politics of the foetus. Boulind and Edwards (2008) are careful in their documentation of the complexities of the case, and thus their use of PAS is unfortunate.
Format: 6 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Language: English
Relation: Macleod, C. (2009) Why we should avoid the use of the term “Post-Abortion Syndrome”: commentary on Boulind and Edwards (2008). Journal of Psychology in Africa, 19 (3). pp. 423-428. ISSN 1433-0237
Rights: This is an electronic version of an article that was published in Working Group for African Psychology © 2009 Copyright; Taylor & Francis.

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Macleod, Catriona Ida (Distinguished Professor)

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