A New Approach to Women & Therapy [Paperback]

Miriam Greenspan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1993

In the tenth-anniversary edition of this text, Miriam Greenspan presents a stinging and often humourous indictment of a male-dominated psychotherapeutic community unwilling to acknowledge the role of sexual inequality as a factor in female "symptoms" such as low self-esteem, depression and sexual withdrawal. By its failure to address the social roots of women's psychological pain, Greenspan says, the patriarchal mental health care establishment contributes to women's emotional suffering. Writing for a broad range of readers interested in psychotherapy and women's issues, Greenspan tells of her own experiences in therapy and those of many of her patients. These stories illustrate how treatment approaches based on traditional male attitudes pathologize and devalue women. This detailed and critical study does more than expose the failures of male-biased psychotherapy. It also offers a positive alternative treatment model which recognizes women's emotional pain and is based on an empowering therapeutic relationship. Greenspan gives several case examples of feminist treatment techniques, explaining the rationale behind each and assisting readers in the search for a therapist who subscribes to them. In a new introduction, Greenspan takes a close and impassioned look at recent developments in the world of women and healing, including the accomplishments of feminist therapy during the last decade, the emergence of the sexual abuse survivor movement, the contribution and dangers of the codependency recovery movement for women's psychological healing and a new vision of feminist therapy as a means of bringing about planetary healing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Tab Books; 2 edition (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830641688
• ISBN-13: 978-0830641680
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #683,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not so "new", but enough remains current, October 25, 2010

By 

Page Scott (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A New Approach to Women & Therapy (Paperback)

Second person on Amazon to review this book? That's surprising--I thought it was a classic in the field. The book was written in 1983, so it's not exactly a "new approach" anymore. Greenspan makes some pretty damning indictments of psychology at the time, and it seems that a lot has changed since the 80's. (For example, I believe the Freudian therapies she describes have largely fallen out of vogue.) But I think that Greenspan's basic premise is very current, and deserves to be read: That mental issues can't be entirely divorced from social, political, and economic realities. "Oppression is depressing", she says, and I agree.

However, I think Greenspan tends to make too large a leap, from "It's all in your head" to "None of it's in your head". Greenspan doesn't acknowledge the possibility that a mental illness could stem from a combination of causes, for instance. And she doesn't mention any instances in which her form of therapy was unsuccessful. Although her feminist therapy seems like an improvement on the previous therapies that she described, it seemed a little disingenuous to make no critique whatsoever of her methods. Looking at 1983, I can understand why Greenspan really needed to do a hard sell of her method. But in 2010, it seems overkill.

I'm waffling between 3 and 4 stars for this book. I'll round up, though, because I think Greenspan remains an important voice in an age when every human problem is medicalized.

0 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Political and Full of Generalizations, July 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: A New Approach to Women & Therapy (Paperback)

Contrary to the author's beliefs, not all women are scarred by sexism, and not all therapy has to be different for people of different genders. The books relies on political assumptions about the way the world works that many of us may disagree with, and makes generalizations about our experiences that are often innaccurate. I recommend that you read something where the author is not so clearly pushing her political agenda if you really want to be helped.