Women Beyond Freud: New Concepts of Feminine Psychology edited by Milton M. Berger New York:  Brunner/Mazel, 1994,  xxiii + 162 pp., $26.95. Women in Context: Toward a Feminist Reconstruction of Psychotherapy edited by Marsha Pravder Mirkin New York:  Guilford Press, 1994,  xxi + 502 pp., $44.95.

The last 15 years have seen an explosion of writing in women's psychology, feminist therapy, and feminist critiques of mainstream,

male-centered psychological theories and practices. Although quite different in scope and intent from one another, both Women Beyond Freud and Women in Context contribute to this genre.

With Women Beyond Freud, Milton M. Berger, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, has edited a book in which two basic themes are intertwined. The first is the theme of women's intellectual creativity in contexts of male-defined institutions and orthodoxy. The exemplar of this theme is Karen Horney (in whose honor the essays are presented), and the contributors who address it are Susan Quinn and Marianne Horney Eckhardt. The second theme is that of women's relationality; the elucidation of this theme involves demonstrating women's reinterpretations of mainstream psychoanalytic theories of development and maturity, as well as uncovering the theoretical and political significance of women's resistance. Jean Baker Miller and Carol Gilligan address women's relational connections.

These two themes complement one another, as the early chapters on Horney's theoretical departures from Freudian orthodoxy are echoed and elaborated through the emphasis on relationships in the second portion of the book. Thus, the organization of the volume marks a shift from conceptualizing persons as egos, bearers of drives, and isolated, to conceptualizing them (in the lexicon of the Stone Center, represented here by Jean Baker Miller) as selves-in-relation. If the volume is read to move from a consideration of Horney's own conflicts with Freudian orthodoxy to a broader consideration of relational themes in psychoanalytic theory, Mario Rendon's brief and eloquent “Discussion” is the central essay in the volume.

Particularly interesting are discussions of Karen Horney's work and her many important areas of disagreement with Freud and the psyc