Women's voices: Lost or mislaid, stolen or strayed?

Abstract

It is estimated that disorders of voice affect 3–4% of people from all strata of Australian society and while some voice disorders may be caused by organic conditions, most patients are troubled by non-organic or functional voice disorders (FVD). As professionals dealing with these problems, we wonder about the role of strong negative emotions arising from stressful life experiences preceding onset, or dispositional factors that may influence ways in which an individual responds to such incidents. We wonder too, how these complex processes may be inter-related, and if this may account for one person misusing or damaging the voice, while another loses the voice altogether. Evidence for the possible relationship between negative emotions arising out of stressful events and onset of FVD in women is briefly presented. The findings suggest that women with FVD may have difficulty in the processing of negative emotions, and when considered in a wider socio-cultural perspective, it is proposed that some have temporarily lost their voices, while others have been rendered powerless and had their voices stifled. These findings serve as the foundation for a broader discussion about the possible implications for the speech pathology profession which might be at risk of losing its voice.

Keywords:

• Voice
• emotions
• speech-language pathology
• functional voice disorders

Acknowledgments

I should like to acknowledge my supervisors David Ben-Tovim, Andrew Butcher, Adrian Esterman with Kristin McLaughlin and I am most grateful to Jennifer Oates, Ann Zubrick and Christina Shewell for their ongoing support. I am indebted to Wynton Marsalis, Trudyanne Meadmore of BMGART, and artists Fred Cress and Louise Bourgeois for allowing me to use their magnificent art work to support this discussion paper. All of these people above have been an inspiration to me and will continue to be so.