Trusting Ourselves

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Psychiatrist Johnson and medical writer Ferguson bring a valuable feminist perspective to power imbalances in male-female relationships, women's psychosexual development, ``victim'' psychology, and the effects of abuse, depression, violence and family dysfunction on women's lives. But in attempting to map a female psychology free from the sexist bias found in Freudian psychoanalysis, this self-styled sourcebook succumbs to peculiar generalizations (`` . . . women's preoccupation with their mothers borders on obsession''), cliches (`` . . . women and men seem to mix like oil and water'') and debatable feminist stances (``Most problems that plague female-male relationships are problems of inequality''). The style swings awkwardly between cumbersome, heavily footnoted prose and psychobabble. Chapters on self-esteem, creating healthy relationships, eating disorders and so forth, while providing succinct summaries of the literature, are on a par with those in most pedestrian self-help guides. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Severe editing or a narrower scope would have made this a much better book. Attempting to write a New Our Bodies, Our selves (Boston Women's Health Book Collective, LJ 3/15/85) with a psychological slant, the authors--a psychiatrist (Johnson) and a medical writer/physician (Ferguson)--discuss treatment of women by various schools of psychology and in various relationships: daughter-parent, husband-wife, and lesbian. They also address self-esteem, alcoholism, abuse, and depression. But can we really ``trust'' a women's sourcebook that fails to mention the impact of childbirth or abortion in its chapter on sexuality? This is a hodgepodge of good information, but it's not an essential purchase.-- Florence Scarinci, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y .