Women and Madness

Feminist icon Chesler's pioneering work—2.5 million copies sold—revised and updated for the first time in 30 years. This definitive book was the first to address critical questions about women and mental health. Combining patient interviews with an analysis of women's roles in history, society, and myth Chesler concludes that there is a terrible double standard when it comes to women's psychology. In this new edition, she addresses head-on many of the most relevant issues to women and mental health today, including eating disorders, social acceptance of antidepressants, addictions, sexuality, postpartum depression, and more. Fully revised and updated, Women and Madness remains as important today as it was when first published in 1972.

The classic feminist critique of the mental health professions, passionate yet carefully documented--and pointing to a new way of understanding and healing psychological suffering.

Feminist icon Phyllis Chesler's pioneering work—2.5 million copies sold—revised and updated for the first time in over thirty years

Library Journal

Still strident after all these years, prominent feminist author and activist Chesler (The Death of Feminism) here updates her classic on female psychology. A new introduction is followed by a restatement of her earlier work with updated commentary. In a text richly textured with classical and research references, she revisits her original study of psychiatric bias and oppression, including sex between patient and clinician, and reviews how the feminist landscape has changed since the 1970s. Chesler continues to assert that the male-dominated mental health system is sexist and shows how the [mis]diagnosis of madness has been applied to individuals who reject the stereotypical female role (e.g. Sylvia Plath, Zelda Fitzgerald) and to illnesses that reflect the acting out of the socially devalued female role (e.g., depression, sexual dysfunction). Though concluding that her original arguments have been largely supported, she proposes a new feminist psychology that is more nuanced than might be expected. Filled with cogent insights and applications to contemporary issues (e.g., biological psychiatry, eating disorders), the book embodies enough revision to make it relevant while still retaining the power of the original. With an extensive bibliography; recommended for a new generation of public library users and for all women's studies and mental health collections.-Antoinette Brinkman, MLS, Evansville, IN Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Phyllis Chesler is the author of seminal works including the 2.5-million copy bestseller Women and Madness, as well as Letters to a Young Feminist and Woman's Inhumanity to Woman. Her most recent book, The New Anti-Semitism, has won her international acclaim and sparked huge debate.

She is an Emerita Professor of psychology and women's studies, the co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969), the National Women's Health Network (1974), and the International Committee for Women of the Wall (1989). She is currently on the Board of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and is also affiliated with Haifa and Bar Ilan Universities. She lives in New York City.