Customer Reviews

The Healing Connection: How Women Form Relationships in Therapy and in Life

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was recommended to me by a professional in the field. I poured over it's theory, built of moving examples, rather easy and engrossing to read. Now I see that a desire for connection is not a weakness, but a strength.

This book demonstrates how traditional psychology is based on a male point of view, and it reveals some of the unknown about healthly "life-giving" attitudes. Read this quickly, before you buy into an archaic model once again. Amazing, in this day and age, that this light has not been shed on us before.

Instead of basing psychology from the point of view of the individual and personal gratification and development, this book shifts our view to the realm of relationships and connection. The basic human need is not solely self-gratification in the way we usually think of it, but a desire for mutually empathic & empowering connection with others which is gratifying and results in psychological growth for all parties. The book lays out the beginnings of this new view and what it means to psychology. The book reflects the fact that this theory is still new and developing. The ideas and thoughts are sure to make a difference in the way psychology is practiced in the future. All the basics of this aspect of psychology are laid out and illustrated. Though there is still work to be done in this area of the field, the book is a good opening.

This book presents an alternate (and IMHO preferable) paradigm for psychology, particularly with regard to women.

Yes, the authors' only specific references to traditional psychology are with regard to psychoanalysis. However, in my opinion the extension to CBT and other typical theories and practices of human development and psychotherapy is implicit, as most of these approaches are firmly grounded in a male-dominated, positivist paradigm. Therefore, I have no qualms with the lack of generalizable research backing this theory, because in order to perform generalizable research one would have to subscribe to the male-dominated, positivist paradigm.

This book, as well as other writings from the Stone Center, have drastically changed my understanding of development and mental health, as well as my practice of psychotherapy.

This text continues to be utilized as the seminal Relational Cultural Theory text by some and hailed as a revelation in the field of counseling psychology despite the facts that Miller and her Stone Center associates continue to produce no research to back their theory. and theory is based on suppositions that are actually contrary to the existent research on sex differences. Further, Miller simply reintroduces aspects of existing theories (e.g., Object Relations) which are treated as novel and singular.

This is an interesting book and addresses a number of issues that have been examined more completely in other books. Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of this book is the misrepresentation of "psychology" when what is actually referenced is rather traditional psychoanalytic theory. The book would have been enhanced, and probably altered, by a careful review of actual psychological research and theory rather than a dated presentation of Freudian theory.