ABSTRACT
Feminist mental health ethics brings feminist lenses to the moral and political complexities surrounding mental healthcare, including the clinical and research practices surrounding mental illness or disorder. The field pays particular attention to the experiences of members of marginalized groups (i.e. people harmed because of their racial, gender, sexual, socio-economic, religious, ethnic, disabled, or otherwise non-dominant identities), and to the ways these identities can shape their experiences of mental health, mental illness or disorder and participation in mental healthcare or research contexts. This chapter provides an overview of key themes in the field including: the understanding and classification of mental disorders; effects of diagnosis; mental health; stigma and the impact of oppression; and feminist perspectives on mental health interventions and research. It also offers a reflection on the potential applications of feminist mental health ethics to an emotional experience which can be common within all healthcare contexts: fear.
