Female Adolescence. Psychoanalytic Reflections on Works of Literature: By Katherine Dalsimer. New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1986, 149 pp.

Katherine Dalsimer's slim volume fills a real need. It is a study of the psychoanalytic theories of female adolescent development—as distinct from that of the male—which is perceptive and eminently readable. She has skillfully integrated psychoanalytic understanding of the stages of female adolescent development with an acute and sensitive understanding of the literary achievements of writers, spanning four centuries, who have been able to communicate to us the inner and outer worlds of adolescence in a way that no clinical description can equal. The result is informative: a series of young women, each chosen to illustrate a particular stage of development, all struggling with the normal tasks of adolescence.

First, Dalsimer elegantly outlines and discusses contemporary psychoanalytic understanding of female adolescence. She follows Peter Blos's outline of the successive phases of adolescence as described in his 1962 book, On Adolescence. I found this a complement to Blos's work that was particularly useful to me in constructing a course on adolescence. Throughout the book, the reader can sense Dalsimer's ability to evoke the delight in discovery and accomplishment that is the hallmark of the normal expectable journey through adolescence. She does not neglect controversial issues in