Synopses & Reviews
Feminist icon Chesler's pioneering work--2.5 million copies sold--revised and updated for the first time in 30 years. This definitive book was the first to address critical questions about women and mental health. Combining patient interviews with an analysis of women's roles in history, society, and myth Chesler concludes that there is a terrible double standard when it comes to women's psychology. In this new edition, she addresses head-on many of the most relevant issues to women and mental health today, including eating disorders, social acceptance of antidepressants, addictions, sexuality, postpartum depression, and more. Fully revised and updated, Women and Madness remains as important today as it was when first published in 1972.
Review
Praise for earlier editions:
"Intense, rapid, brilliant. A pioneer contribution to the feminization of psychiatric thinking and practice."--Adrienne Rich, Front Page, The New York Times Book Review
"Challenges the definition of madness itself. No serious future studies will be able to ignore its theories or its very existence."--Gloria Steinem, Ms. Magazine
"A stunning book...absolutely fascinating...necessary to every woman in America."--Los Angeles Times
Review
Praise for earlier editions:
"Intense, rapid, brilliant. A pioneer contribution to the feminization of psychiatric thinking and practice."--Adrienne Rich, Front Page, The New York Times Book Review
"Challenges the definition of madness itself. No serious future studies will be able to ignore its theories or its very existence."--Gloria Steinem, Ms. Magazine
"A stunning book...absolutely fascinating...necessary to every woman in America."--Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
The first book to address critical questions about women and mental health--revised and updated for the first time in 30 years! In this new edition, Chesler addresses many of the most relevant issues to women and mental health today, including eating disorders, addictions, and postpartum depression.
Synopsis
Feminist icon Phyllis Chesler's pioneering work--2.5 million copies sold--revised and updated for the first time in over thirty years
About the Author
Phyllis Chesler is the author of seminal works including the 2.5-million copy bestseller
Women and Madness, as well as
Letters to a Young Feminist and
Womans Inhumanity to Woman. Her most recent book,
The New Anti-Semitism, has won her international acclaim and sparked huge debate.
She is an Emerita Professor of psychology and women's studies, the co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969), the National Women's Health Network (1974), and the International Committee for Women of the Wall (1989). She is currently on the Board of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and is also affiliated with Haifa and Bar Ilan Universities. She lives in New York City.
Table of Contents
New Introduction * Demeter and Clytemnestra*
Part I: Madness * Why Madness? * Asylums * The Clinicians * The Female Career as a Psychiatric Patient *
Part II: Women * Sex Between Patient and Therapist * Psychiatrically Institutionalized Women * Lesbians * Third World Women * Feminists * Female Psychology: Past, Present, and Future
New Introduction * Demeter and Clytemnestra* Part I: Madness * Why Madness? * Asylums * The Clinicians * The Female Career as a Psychiatric Patient * Part II: Women * Sex Between Patient and Therapist * Psychiatrically Institutionalized Women * Lesbians * Third World Women * Feminists * Female Psychology: Past, Present, and Future