| Six women related their experience of severe emotional and physical pain during the premenstrum. Their account of what is labelled as 'PMS' (Premenstrual Syndrome) as they lived and described the experience, deserves more respectful treatment than a label. Therefore, having been entrusted with their descriptions of their experiences, I chose a Grounded Theory approach, to generate an explanatory theory that gives voice to the meaning of the experiences of the women who lived them. This theory explains these women's experience of the premenstrum as the inevitable consequence of living their lives in a Western culture. From the moment of birth, the conditions of their culture--being a female child in a Western culture; being a child of a dysfunctional family; and experiencing a negative introduction to menstruation--prevent the women from developing the 'primary self' that they bring with them into the world. In addition, as they live their lives in this cultural context, the repeated experiences of 'trying to be the ideal woman,' and 'failing to be the ideal woman' accelerate the process of 'losing access to the primary self.' As viewed in this theory, the 'PMS' experience is the 'turning point' for these women. For some, it is the ultimate confrontation with their 'failure as ideal women,' and until they perceive that 'trying' and 'failing' are synonymous, they stay trapped in a cycle of rage and despair. For others, their 'PMS' experience enables them to see that 'trying' and 'failing' are one, and frees them to 'expose the fiction of ideal womanhood'--the core Basic Psychological Process that was identified by my Grounded Theory Analysis. |
