GETTING HELP: Women's Guide to Therapy

by Elizabeth & Gwenyth Edwards Robson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1980

Concrete help for women selecting a therapist--based on considerations of women's particular needs, the different types of therapy available, and the likely outcomes. The most common problems for which women seek help, the authors note, are interpersonal difficulties, marital and family crises, and the anxiety and depression that may accompany them--though problems with changes in social roles and relationships are becoming more apparent. In any case, psychiatry has been the area of health care in which prejudices against women have been most manifest; and in that light the authors explain the origins, basic theory, and treatment of the major schools of therapy in this country, from the Freudian to transactional analysis. That done, they provide guidance in interviewing and selecting a therapist, and in conducting an ongoing relationship with the person chosen (explaining, for instance, how to disagree constructively). Throughout, they make clear that there is a double standard in mental health care: such attributes as assertiveness and independence are seen as positive for men, but not for women. Hence they come out in favor of ""feminist therapy""--less a school of thought than an approach which takes the social status of women into account in diagnosis. Practical advice is offered, too, on some common problems--first on the list, alarmingly, is sexual seduction (to be dealt with firmly--get out and don't go back). But on the whole they don't proffer opinions so much as enable women to make an intelligent, informed choice.

Pub Date: May 1, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION