This Changes Everything: The Relational Revolution in Psychology [Hardcover]

Christina Robb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2006

We are, therefore I am: an introduction to and political history of the psychology of relationships.

In 1977, Carol Gilligan published the essay "In a Different Voice," describing the discrepancy in morality and self-expression between men and women. In a radical break with the Freudian school that dominated psychology, Gilligan and her peers identified relationships rather than the notion of self as the foundation of our psychological and physical states. Initially met with patronizing indulgence by colleagues, this essay, along with early work by the psychiatrists Judith Lewis Herman and Jean Baker Miller, would go on to radically alter the way we understand the psychology of women, shed new light on misunderstood conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and inspire a trove of bestselling and sometimes controversial books--ranging from Reviving Ophelia to Raising Cain and The Courage to Heal to You Just Don't Understand--that focused intense concern on childhood development, women's relationships, and psychological trauma. In This Changes Everything, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Christina Robb tells the story of relational psychology and recounts the untold work of a pioneering group of psychologists--mostly women--who at times took monumental risks, crossing boundaries and breaking institutional taboos, in order to fully understand the ways in which relationships shape our every experience of the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Robb, a former Boston Globe staffer, presents a celebratory history of the pioneering women psychologists who in the '70s began to challenge traditional concepts of the self and of women's psychological "deficiencies," and advanced their own women-centered theories. Robb opens by describing how Harvard psychologist Carol Gilligan came to write her groundbreaking In a Different Voice, which argued that for women the idea of the self is intimately bound up in a network of close relationships. Robb goes on to describe how other women psychologists and psychiatrists—including Jean Baker Miller, Mary Belenky, Lisa Hirschman, Judith Lewis Herman and Janet L. Surrey—arrived at similar findings. Disseminating their ideas via consciousness-raising groups in the Boston area, these women regarded gender differences as "systemic rather than essential." Through research organizations and bestselling books, they dramatically revised notions of childhood development, incest, posttraumatic stress and sexual pleasure. Drawing on interviews, Robb mingles her subjects' personal and professional histories with case histories that illustrate their theories, and with the commentaries of other experts in related fields. Although Robb's admiring tone is sometimes cloying and she generalizes about women, her richly anecdotal history is a must-read for all those interested in the field of women's psychology. (Mar.)
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Review

"Christina Robb turns up the volume on a few quiet women who discovered the missing link between feminist politics and female reality. Their contribution to relational psychology really did 'change everything'--and Robb paints an exciting portrait of this paradigm shift."--Jennifer Baumgardner, co-author of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future

"This Changes Everything provides a long overdue service to three remarkable women whose contributions to our collective understanding of gender, politics, and psychology are truly immeasurable. Like many, much of my work is founded on these women's insights so it was wonderful to learn about their experiences as educators both inside and outside of their fields of expertise." --Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabees

"It is deliciously appropriate that in reading this fascinating account about relational psychology, you will become intimately connected with the psychologists who developed the field. This Changes Everything movingly and absorbingly describes their struggle to legitimate an entirely new, out-of-the-box way of thinking about human beings. Their work is nothing short of revolutionary: It has had an undeniable impact on politics, feminism, human rights movements, and, of course, personal relationships--literally changing people's lives. You will learn not only the history of relational psychology but about the very things you need to know to make and sustain fruitful human connections."--Leora Tanenbaum, author of Slut! Growing Up Female With a Bad Reputation and Catfight: Rivalries Among Women--From Diets to Dating, From the Boardroom to the Delivery Room

"At last we have an erudite and exciting history of the pioneers of relational psychology. Robb's narrative makes a page turner of a most unlikely story-- a group of feminist academics who changed the world one research paper at a time."

--Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (February 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374275815
• ISBN-13: 978-0374275815
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #788,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptionally Good!, March 7, 2006

By 

Dr. Richard G. Petty (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Changes Everything: The Relational Revolution in Psychology (Hardcover)

The philosopher Ken Wilber first alerted to the work of Carol Gilligan. I was already aware of some of the work of Jean Baker Miller and Judith Lewis Herman and the revolution in psychology that they had spawned. But some of the details I did not known and they are captured in the remarkable narrative of Christina Robb's book.

Almost thirty years ago, Carol Gilligan wrote an essay entitled "In a Different Voice," that was subsequently expanded into a book that I recommend highly. She described the marked discrepancies in morality and self-expression between men and women. For women, the whole notion of self tends to be inextricably bound up in a web of close relationships. Women tend to be more diligent about maintaining and nurturing these relationships, and inter-personal details tend to be more important to them, than they are for most men. At the time that she started writing about this, much psychological thinking in the United States had not yet dragged itself out of the confines of the post-Freudian theorizing that had dominated American psychology for decades. Gilligan and her co-workers identified relationships as the foundation of our psychological and physical states. At the time, the idea that men and women might tend to think and relate in different ways was anathema. I did a brief stint in Boston around that time, and it was pretty clear what could and could not be thought about. Despite the incredible liberal and intellectual traditions at Harvard, there were clearly some "no go" areas in psychology; gender differences being just one of them. Gilligan's work was courageous, and taken together with the findings of psychiatrists Judith Lewis Herman and Jean Baker Miller, would ultimately lead to radical alterations in the way that we understand the psychology of women. Are these gender differences social, political or biological? The answer is, I think, yes: all of the above.

Christine Robb has managed to capture the quiet revolution that these scientists introduced, and which is still being felt today. Though it is surprising how often discussion of gender differences are still omitted from much work on self-psychology. In an otherwise wonderful book - The Self in Neuroscience and Psychiatry, edited by Tilo Kircher and Anthony David - there is scarcely any mention of gender.

I would not normally expect to get through a 450-page book at one sitting: I'm not a speed-reader! But this is so well written and the biographies and interviews so enthralling, that I did indeed polish it off at one sitting. Though I feel sure that I shall return to it in the future.

Though this is a big juicy book with pages of references and a bibliography, I'm going to make a prediction that it is going to be one of those rare cross-over books that will be read not just by academics and psychology students, but also by people who really are interested in knowing more about themselves and understanding relationships. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this one gets featured on Oprah! It's that good.

Highly recommended!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You won't be able to put it down... and then you'll give it to your friends!, November 7, 2009

By 

Harriet L. Schwartz (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Changes Everything: The Relational Revolution in Psychology (Paperback)

This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. Part intellectual history, this book traces the work of Jean Baker Miller, Carol Gilligan and others who revolutionized how we think about development, relationship, and psychology. The storytelling is wonderful and engaging as we are taken back to those revolutionary days in the Boston area when these women took on the power structures of their universities and the psychology profession. We hear how these women stood strong and supported each other. Along the way, we gain greater insight into women's voice and growth-in-relationship and thus learn more about these essential theories. This book was engaging and inspiring!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book with important insights, June 27, 2009

By 

HT (all over :)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Changes Everything: The Relational Revolution in Psychology (Paperback)

This book addresses the history and the importance of the relational revolution. After reading a lot about gender differences, why boys struggle, why girls struggle, and looking at it all in context of how our culture and world are changing, this book is a must-read to put it into perspective.