Customer Reviews

Woman as Healer

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(1)
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Excellent well researched book on the roots and history of woman in medicine and healing. Jeanne Achterberg does an excellent job with a difficult subject. Most of the written documentation about women has been destroyed or misinterpreted by male scholars throughout history. One must be a thorough detective to sift through all of the documentation to find information on this subject.Her interpretations are fair and,I believe, totally valid. This book is for anyone who is a healer or works in the medical profession or those of us who understand the bias in research writen by white european males. To those of you who disparage such work, because of lack of evidence, I suggest you look toward your spirit, and contemplate the injustice of destroying the evidence of the past and then writing your own history to justify the power you hold.

I started reading this for my Women's Health course and could NOT put it down. If you are looking for a general yet intelligent and emotional overview of women's history of healing (or lack thereof) this text is for you. I highly recommend it!

It's not a bad read, but the author's facts are a bit off.

In the chapter on Denmark (which should really be titled 'Germania'), an overview of Norse Heathenism is given - and very incorrectly.

Of the several facets that are listed, perhaps only two or three are accurate and the rest are the result of poor research coupled with biased writing.

Grated this is only a small portion of the book, but it set up a bad relationship with me right off the bat (being a Norse Heathen myself) wherein I could not trust any of the facts in the book to be totally accurate.

Still enjoying this book. Have been reading it in small chunks over time. Not really a book I can get through quickly as the reading though interesting is pretty intense.

This book is a highly readable work of scholarship, showing us a huge slice of human
history that is often hidden and suppressed in our culture - that of the jockeying for
power at the juncture of several very archetypal and powerful issues in our culture-
gender, health, and power. Anyone who wishes to truly understand the contemporary status
of natural healing and our current corrosive corporate politics should read this enjoyable
and insightful book.