Customer Reviews

A New Approach to Women & Therapy

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

 

 

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.

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.