95 Books In 2006, George W. Bush read 95 books. We will do better.

Updated for the first time in 30 years, this book, grounded in First Wave feminist theory, explores the contexts and categories surrounding “mad” women. As a Third Waver, I sometimes grew impatient with Chesler’s lengthy sociological treatises, and wanted her to get back to the issue of Women and Madness. I also wanted to argue  with some of her assertions: She wants to paint women as both “worst victim” and “best victim” in certain situations…..e.g., more women attempt suicide because of the patriarchy, more men complete suicide because of the patriarchy. Wait, what?

I’ve personally witnessed heartbreaking suffering in men that is comparable to the suffering I’ve witnessed in women: men suffering from mental illness and men suffering from the fallout of their loved ones’ mental illness; not that I am privileging male suffering over female suffering, rather, human suffering is human suffering. I don’t know that it is a worthwhile exercise to attempt to quantify human suffering, especially around something like mental illness, which continues to be stigmatized in our society.

At other times, I wanted to yell at the interviewed women, especially the group that slept with their male therapists (who by all accounts were lousy lays!) The idea that anyone could be so naive, even in the 1970s, is mind-numbing. 

Overall, the book is good, informative reading about women and mental illness, but because a lot of the book was written in the early 70s, with a bit of recent updating, it is unfortunately quite dated, especially when it comes to some of Ms. Chesler’s assertions and conclusions. She seems to be biased against homosexual men, and the discussion on swinging was just plain funny. Maybe I’m sheltered, but didn’t that particular cultural moment pass? The chapter on “Third World Women” could have used more strenuous updating. The term “Third World” is at best passe and at worst problematic, and she seems to be using it to refer to black/immigrant/women of colour, but in some contexts it is hard to tell. Or she refers to “Native American women” having “access to tribal and spiritual modes of healing.” Um, only if their families weren’t decimated by the reservation boarding schools and were able to keep their language and traditions from their elders. 

-Nikki