Women and Madness - Hardcover

Chesler, Phyllis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385026714 ISBN 13: 9780385026710

Publisher: Doubleday, 1972

Synopsis

This definitive book was the first to address critical questions about women and mental health.. In this new edition, Chesler addresses 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.

About this title

Review:

'In a text richly textured with classical and research references, she revisits her original study of psychiatric bias and oppression...Filled with cogent insights and applications to contemporary issues...the book embodies enough revision to make it relevant while still retaining the power of the original. With an extensive bibliography; recommended for a new generation of public library users and for all women's studies and mental health collections.' - Antoinette Brinkman, The Library Journal
Still strident after all these years, prominent feminist author and activist Chesler here updates her classic on female psychology. A new introduction is followed by a restatement of her earlier work with updated commentary. In a text richly textured with classical and research references, she revisits her original study of psychiatric bias and oppression, including sex between patient and clinician, and reviews how the feminist landscape has changed since the 1970s...Filled with cogent insights and applications to contemporary issues (e.g., biological psychiatry, eating disorders), the book embodies enough revision to make it relevant while still retaining the power of the original. With an extensive bibliography; recommended for a new generation of public library users and for all women's studies and mental health collections. - Library Journal

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

Sometimes forceful, sometimes tender, Women & Madness, like all important books, has the enormous power to trouble the sleep of the world. - -Roland Jaccard, LeMonde, Paris

The right book at the right time by the right person. - Robert Seidenberg, M.D. , practicing Psychoanalyst

This is sure to be one of the most important, even distinguished books to come to us in a long while - a landmark. - Kate Millett

Chesler has synthesized history, personal pain, therapy, poetry, and a rage for liberation into a work of art. - Jack Newfield, Author

This is an extremely important book, a signal that the women's liberation movement is coming of age. Phyllis Chesler writes with high passion and compassion; What is unusual is that the passion is firmly rooted in professional research. Chesler is one of the new breed of social scientists, well trained, skilled and literate in many fields, whose loyalty is to the public rather than to any establishment. Considering the painful, shocking nature of its subject matter, Women and Madness is more robust than bitter, more hopeful than desperate - in the best sense a consciousness-raising effort. - The Saturday Review of Books

A stunning book...absolutely fascinating.- Los Angeles Times

Dr. Chesler casts her clear-eyed vision over the field of psychiatry/psychology and unveils the sexism that underlies the history and the practice of the art. Who knows how much untold damage has been caused by those who understand little about women as a sex, and could care less, as long as they establish their careers? Incorporating the mythology of women as metaphor, Chesler also paints a picture of how we, as women, have paid the price for patriarchal privilege. I read this book 20 years ago, and I just read it again. It was an enjoyable this time as it was then, maybe even more so, with the deeper understanding I have now about the roots of feminism. - Amazon Customer Review, (Rating: 5 out of 5)

About the Author:

PHYLLIS CHESLER is one of the founding feminists and author of seminal works including the bestseller Women and Madness, as well as Letters to a Young Feminist and Woman's Inhumanity to Woman. Her most recent book, The New Anti-Semitism, has won her international acclaim and sparked huge debate. Her books have been widely reviewed, including front page New York Times Book Review coverage. She has lectured and organized political, legal, religious, and human rights campaigns in the United States and in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. Chesler is a co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969) and The National Women's Health Network (1974).

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1972
• ISBN 10: 0385026714
• ISBN 13: 9780385026710
• Binding: Hardcover