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This research studies the use of gendered mental-health labels, such as "crazy," "hysterical," "insane," and "emotionally unstable," in Canadian custody cases decided between 2000 and 2016. Building on Judith Mosoff's work on gender and mental health stigma in custody proceedings, it maps how these "pop-psychology" labels impact custody litigation. This investigation reveals that mental-health labels serve to discredit the mother, attack her parenting abilities, and distract from her allegations of violence by the father. The article also explores fathers', mental health experts', and judges' roles in framing the mother's credibility and parental capacity with regard to her alleged mental instability. It observes how the unjustified use of mental-health labels can backfire against the father, and how mothers can link out-of-court mental-health insults to legal arguments supporting their claim for custody. Although producing varied consequences, mental-health labels often reinforce gender biases and myths regarding domestic violence.
INTRODUCTION
The trope of the "crazy woman" is influential in our society, affecting psychiatry, the media, our culture, and popular discourses. A simple example, entering "crazy mom" into Google returns significantly more results than the search "crazy dad." Our society's historical obsession with labeling women as crazy has had important implications for women in numerous aspects of their lives.
This article explores the intersection between gender and mental health stigma in the context of custody disputes. Building on Judith Mosoffs work on how a mother's mental illness negatively affects her claim for custody, it studies how discourses and stereotypes on mother's mental health impact custody disputes in the context of an opposite sex, dyadic, nuclear family. The conflictual and gendered context of such litigation creates a fertile field for the mobilization of stereotypes about women's mental health.
This research analyses 120 cases involving the gendered use of a mental-health label, such as "crazy" or "hysterical," rendered by Canadian courts between 2000 and 2016. It finds that ableist labels are used especially by fathers, but also by judges and experts, to diminish mothers' credibility and attack their parental capacity. Allegations of mental instability are rarely fully successful, but create space for the use of gendered stereotypes, distract the court from the analysis of the father's violence, and are rarely punished. Finally, mothers also use mentalhealth labels to testify that the...