You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Dr. Helen DeRosis is a distinguished psychoanalyst with a special interest in women's problems. Victoria Pellegrino is a writer whose articles have appeared in many popular periodicals. Together they have written The Book of Hope: How Women Can Overcome Depression, which should provide a powerful stimulus to many women in their attempts to discover what is wrong in their lives. It could also open many new areas of exploration for women who are unaware of their chronic, low-grade depression and who have been attributing their feelings of dissatisfaction and restlessness to normal living patterns. The material in the book is based on Dr. DeRosis’ clinical work and on interviews with hundreds of women. The results give a realistic assessment of how women actually feel—not how Madison Avenue tells them they should feel.
The cornerstones of depression (self-hatred, anger, guilt, helplessness, and hopelessness) are carefully explained in terms of Karen Horney's psychoanalytic theory. The depressed person is advised to ask herself, “What impossible thing am I asking of myself?” By having too many “shoulds” (e.g. I should be considerate at all times) that cannot be satisfied, the perfect self constantly reminds the actual self of numerous shortcomings. This condition produces a continuous state of rage and self-hatred that, together with other factors, can result in depression. The reader may recognize herself among the women described in this book and be compelled to reevaluate her own “shoulds.”
The authors first invite the reader to examine herself in terms of three distinct personality types: the overcompliant, self-effacing, love-addicted person; the detached, uninvolved, resigned person; the domineering person, the one who wants to achieve mastery. This formulation parallels Horney's character types. It is stressed that they are rarely found in “pure” form. It is the compulsive quality in each of these types that makes for their neurotic character. The questions that re