Female Authority: Empowering Women through Psychotherapy

by Polly Young-Eisendrath, Florence L. Wiedemann

For women in Western society, there is no straightforward path of development to autonomous adulthood. The double-bind of female authority--that a women cannot be both a healthy adult and an ideal woman-- is the context in which a woman must construct her self in this culture. Whether she sees herself as "too needy" or "too controlling," "too insecure" or "too self-reliant," she is gathering evidence to support a theory of personal inadequacy. The traditional perspectives of psychodynamics and psychopathology reinforce women's sense of inferiority. How then does a woman claim her own authority-- the validity of her own truth, beauty, goodness, originating in her own experience.


Young-Eisendrath and Wiedemann break with the tradition of "deficit thinking," the examination of what is absent, wrong, or deficient. Recognizing this as a fundamental barrier to the empowerment of women, they work instead from an understanding of what is already strong and satisfying in the lives of women and girls in a patriarchal society. This volume unravels the paradox of female authority through the examination of its sociocultural, symbolic, and personal dimensions. Chapters 1 through 4 present a re-visioning of the female self, using the psychologies of C. G. Jung and Jane Loevinger as major theoretical frameworks. The authors argue for a modification of Jung's concept of "animus'' --the repressed masculine in the girl or woman--and in chapters 5 through 8 present a detailed model of psychotherapy based on five stages of animus development. Using a wealth of clinical material from their own practices --including two extended case presentations in chapters 9 through 11-- the authors skillfully illustrate their own efforts to help women assume greater personal authority. The book's concluding chapter presents New Texts and Contexts for Female Development.


Unique in its combination of feminist theory, social psychology, and Jungian psychology, FEMALE AUTHORITY offers a fresh approach to the analysis of gender concerns in identity. The book will be of great value to practitioners and theoreticians in the human services. The discussion of women's self-esteem and personal authority, and the probing of conflicts inherent in female identity in our society, place this book among the major recent contributions to the development of a psychology of women.

Genres: Psychology

242 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 1987

About the author

Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst, psychologist, and psychotherapist in private practice. She is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont and the founder and director of the Institute for Dialogue Therapy. She is past president of the Vermont Association for Psychoanalytic Studies and a founding member of the Vermont Institute for the Psychotherapies. Polly is also the chairperson of Enlightening Conversations, a series of conversational conferences which bring together participants from the front lines of Buddhism and psychoanalysis. Polly has published sixteen books, as well as many chapters and articles, that have been translated into more than twenty languages, including The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance> and Love Between Equals: Relationship as a Spiritual Path>.

Reviews

[Amber Middlebrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an aggressive read, full of examples of how women are challenged to gain authority over one's life in our current patriarchal society. author explains in the first sentence,'personal authority is the ability to validate ones own thoughts and actions as good and true.' then i found this powerful and validating to my own experience, 'a woman maintains her self esteem and personal worth primarly through male reflections' this is based on men socialized to behave authoratatively while women form identity relationships with them in order to validate their own personal authority. this can create challenges between women and male relationships as well as how it impacts a womens self-esteem and worth when it needs to be reflected, not owned internally. the author does a great job walking through the stages of animus development and shares examples, dreams, and real client progressions. Really enjoyed being able to map my own journey. I'm glad I picked this up now, as it's fairly aggressive and may have been too hard to grasp earlier in my journey. I enjoyed the conclusion regarding empathy: self as dependent. physical and emotional dependence is a primary condition of human life. Regardless of how independent we are, we are dependent on human interaction for the development of persona. ' The sense of self, in its inherent structure is always refers to the other because it is the relationship to the other that provides the basis for reflection on oneself.' Human experience is a shared experience.

[Viktorija Marinković Uma Vid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very andvanced reading. And beautiful. My opinion is that you have to have some experience of psychoterapy and psychoanalysis/jungian anslysis to be able to understand the language of the book.

[Georgina · Rating 4 out of 5]

it aged well

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, so necessary! I love how forward thinking and practical PYE is! Very refreshing in a world moving beyond duality