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NEVERMORE: THE HYMEN AND THE LOSS OF VIRGINITY. By Deanna Holtzman and Nancy Kulish. Northvale, NJ: Aronson, 1997. 249 pp.
BECOMING AND BEING A WOMAN. By Ruth F. Lax, Ph.D. Northvale, NJ: Aronson, 1997. 253 pp.
It is an interesting experience to read these two books side by side. Lax begins with Freud: she compares and contrasts former ideas of female psychology with newer ones. Holtzman and Kulish take up the gauntlet from there, expanding our understanding with research, clinical material, and theoretical revisions. They no longer feel a need to look back, note changes, and justify them. How far we have come!
Lax reminds us that our theory significantly impacts on our therapeutic efficacy. Freud's limited theoretical understanding of women limited our ability to hear what it was that our female patients were telling us. We needed to be able to open our minds to the possibility of another way of understanding that which we were hearing.
In proceeding with a discussion of the analyst's pregnancy, a topic on which she has been a pioneer contributor, Lax notes the absence of