Professor Jane Ussher

Position

Professor of Women's Health Psychology

Biography

Awarded a personal chair in Women's Health Psychology in 2002, Jane Ussher has been working on research on gendered health, since she started her PhD in 1983. Her research focuses on examining gendered factors underlying mental health problems, subjectivity and identity in relation to the reproductive body and sexuality, and gendered issues in cancer and cancer care. As a trained clinical psychologist, she has also made a contribution to the integration of research and clinical practice in women's health, and has developed a women centred psychological treatment for PMS, and minimal interventions in the area of cancer and sexuality.

Jane is editor of the Routledge Women and Psychology book series, and author of a number of books, including The Psychology of the Female Body (Routlege 1989), Women's Madness: Misogyny or Mental Illness? (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991), Fantasies of Femininity: Reframing the Boundaries of Sex (Penguin, 1997), Managing the Monstrous Feminine: Regulating the Reproductive Body (Routledge, 2007) and The Madness of Women: Myth and Experience (Routledge, 2011).

She has also edited a number of books: Gender Issues in Clinical Psychology (with Paula Nicolson; Routledge 1992); The Psychology of Women's Health and Health Care (McMillan, 1992); Psychological Perspectives on Sexual Problems (Routledge, 1993); Bodytalk: The Material and Discursive Regulation of Madness, Sexuality and Reproduction (Routledge, 1997); and Women's Health: Contemporary International Perspectives (Blackwell, 2000).

She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and has published over 200 peer reviewed journal articles, chapters and reports. She has received research funding from the ESRC & NHS (UK), ARC, PCFA, NSW Cancer Council, NBCF, CanTeen, and Family Planning NSW, amongst others.

She is on the editorial board of several journals, including Counselling Psychology Quarterly, Psychology Health and Medicine, Psychology Review, Psychology Evolution and Gender, British Journal of Clinical Psychology, Social Theory and Health, Psychology and Sexuality, and Contemporary Social Science.

Her current funded projects include an examination of couple interventions for premenstrual distress; sexual health in refugee and non-English speaking migrant women; sexuality and fertility in the context of cancer; young women's experiences of smoking; and LGBT experiences of cancer.

Research Interests

• Women's health
• PMS
• Sexuality
• Cancer and sexuality

Qualifications and Recognition

• PhD University of London
• BA University of ExeterDip(Psych) British Psychological Society

Research and Publications

• For a full listing of my publications please view my publications page (opens in a new window)
• View my ResearchGate profile (opens in a new window)

Contact