Emma Tseris is senior lecturer in Social Work and Policy Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia, researching feminist and critical mental health theory. She is the author of Trauma, Women's Mental Health and Social Justice: Pitfalls and Possibilities (2019) and co-author of Using Social Research for Social Justice (2023).Scarlett Franks is a survivor researcher from the University of Sydney, Australia, who also serves on the Survivor College of the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse, the board of directors of the Grace Tame Foundation, and the Advisory Panel of the NSW Office of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner. Eva Bright Hart is a feminist survivor researcher from the University of Sydney, Australia. She is a senior social worker and public health professional from a rural area. Eva is also known as a mother, teacher, gardener, cook, author, activist and artist. As a survivor of psychiatric and gendered violence Eva uses a protective pseudonym so she can contribute without the fear of further discrimination, disablement and involuntary psychiatric treatment for herself and her family. Eva means "living one".

• Chapter 1 Benevolence and Expertise? Questioning the role of coercive psychiatry in women’s lives.- Chapter 2 Disruption: Using participatory, collective, and creative research processes to challenge psy-coercion in women’s lives.- Chapter 3 Violence: Psycho-patriarchal oppression across the lifecourse.- Chapter 4 Resistance: Diverse and non-linear journeys in challenging psy-knowledges.- Chapter 5 Imagination: Collective creative responses to psycho-patriarchal oppression.- Chapter 6 Dialogue: Talking about psy-oppression with family members and mental health workers.- Chapter 7 Dissent: Building alternative worlds beyond psy-oppression.

“Psychiatric Oppression in Women’s Lives advances this legacy through participatory action research undertaken with women survivors of involuntary mental health treatment in New South Wales, Australia. ... Psychiatric Oppression in Women’s Lives provides a vivid and trenchant criticism of psychiatric harm to women through involuntary treatment.” (Ellen Annandale, Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, February 2, 2026) “A searing contribution to the growing field of critical mental health scholarship … . a compelling and necessary work that challenges psychiatry’s carceral logics, centres survivor knowledge, weaves together collaborative research and visions for collective liberation, and insists on the political nature of both distress and healing. … This book should be read widely by those committed to dismantling systems of psychiatric oppression and building care systems that empower rather than contain.” (Sarah Morrison, New Zealand Sociology, Vol. 40 (2), 2025)

Emma Tseris is senior lecturer in Social Work and Policy Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia, researching feminist and critical mental health theory. She is the author of Trauma, Women's Mental Health and Social Justice: Pitfalls and Possibilities (2019) and co-author of Using Social Research for Social Justice (2023).Scarlett Franks is a survivor researcher from the University of Sydney, Australia, who also serves on the Survivor College of the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse, the board of directors of the Grace Tame Foundation, and the Advisory Panel of the NSW Office of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner. Eva Bright Hart is a feminist survivor researcher from the University of Sydney, Australia. She is a senior social worker and public health professional from a rural area. Eva is also known as a mother, teacher, gardener, cook, author, activist and artist. As a survivor of psychiatric and gendered violence Eva uses a protective pseudonym so she can contribute without the fear of further discrimination, disablement and involuntary psychiatric treatment for herself and her family. Eva means "living one".

• Chapter 1 Benevolence and Expertise? Questioning the role of coercive psychiatry in women’s lives.- Chapter 2 Disruption: Using participatory, collective, and creative research processes to challenge psy-coercion in women’s lives.- Chapter 3 Violence: Psycho-patriarchal oppression across the lifecourse.- Chapter 4 Resistance: Diverse and non-linear journeys in challenging psy-knowledges.- Chapter 5 Imagination: Collective creative responses to psycho-patriarchal oppression.- Chapter 6 Dialogue: Talking about psy-oppression with family members and mental health workers.- Chapter 7 Dissent: Building alternative worlds beyond psy-oppression.

“Psychiatric Oppression in Women’s Lives advances this legacy through participatory action research undertaken with women survivors of involuntary mental health treatment in New South Wales, Australia. ... Psychiatric Oppression in Women’s Lives provides a vivid and trenchant criticism of psychiatric harm to women through involuntary treatment.” (Ellen Annandale, Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, February 2, 2026) “A searing contribution to the growing field of critical mental health scholarship … . a compelling and necessary work that challenges psychiatry’s carceral logics, centres survivor knowledge, weaves together collaborative research and visions for collective liberation, and insists on the political nature of both distress and healing. … This book should be read widely by those committed to dismantling systems of psychiatric oppression and building care systems that empower rather than contain.” (Sarah Morrison, New Zealand Sociology, Vol. 40 (2), 2025)

Emma Tseris is senior lecturer in Social Work and Policy Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia, researching feminist and critical mental health theory. She is the author of Trauma, Women's Mental Health and Social Justice: Pitfalls and Possibilities (2019) and co-author of Using Social Research for Social Justice (2023).Scarlett Franks is a survivor researcher from the University of Sydney, Australia, who also serves on the Survivor College of the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse, the board of directors of the Grace Tame Foundation, and the Advisory Panel of the NSW Office of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner. Eva Bright Hart is a feminist survivor researcher from the University of Sydney, Australia. She is a senior social worker and public health professional from a rural area. Eva is also known as a mother, teacher, gardener, cook, author, activist and artist. As a survivor of psychiatric and gendered violence Eva uses a protective pseudonym so she can contribute without the fear of further discrimination, disablement and involuntary psychiatric treatment for herself and her family. Eva means "living one".

• Chapter 1 Benevolence and Expertise? Questioning the role of coercive psychiatry in women’s lives.- Chapter 2 Disruption: Using participatory, collective, and creative research processes to challenge psy-coercion in women’s lives.- Chapter 3 Violence: Psycho-patriarchal oppression across the lifecourse.- Chapter 4 Resistance: Diverse and non-linear journeys in challenging psy-knowledges.- Chapter 5 Imagination: Collective creative responses to psycho-patriarchal oppression.- Chapter 6 Dialogue: Talking about psy-oppression with family members and mental health workers.- Chapter 7 Dissent: Building alternative worlds beyond psy-oppression.

“Psychiatric Oppression in Women’s Lives advances this legacy through participatory action research undertaken with women survivors of involuntary mental health treatment in New South Wales, Australia. ... Psychiatric Oppression in Women’s Lives provides a vivid and trenchant criticism of psychiatric harm to women through involuntary treatment.” (Ellen Annandale, Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, February 2, 2026) “A searing contribution to the growing field of critical mental health scholarship … . a compelling and necessary work that challenges psychiatry’s carceral logics, centres survivor knowledge, weaves together collaborative research and visions for collective liberation, and insists on the political nature of both distress and healing. … This book should be read widely by those committed to dismantling systems of psychiatric oppression and building care systems that empower rather than contain.” (Sarah Morrison, New Zealand Sociology, Vol. 40 (2), 2025)