Reviving Ophelia : saving the selves of adolescent girls / Mary Pipher.
Material type: TextPublication details: New York : Riverhead Books, 2005, c1994.Edition: 1st Riverhead trade pbk. edDescription: 303 p. ; 21 cmISBN:- 1594481881
- 9781594481888
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Main Library | NonFiction | 305.235 P665 | Available | 33111007604271 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
#1 New York Times Bestseller
The groundbreaking work that poses one of the most provocative questions of a generation: what is happening to the selves of adolescent girls?
As a therapist, Mary Pipher was becoming frustrated with the growing problems among adolescent girls. Why were so many of them turning to therapy in the first place? Why had these lovely and promising human beings fallen prey to depression, eating disorders, suicide attempts, and crushingly low self-esteem? The answer hit a nerve with Pipher, with parents, and with the girls themselves. Crashing and burning in a "developmental Bermuda Triangle," they were coming of age in a media-saturated culture preoccupied with unrealistic ideals of beauty and images of dehumanized sex, a culture rife with addictions and sexually transmitted diseases. They were losing their resiliency and optimism in a "girl-poisoning" culture that propagated values at odds with those necessary to survive.
Told in the brave, fearless, and honest voices of the girls themselves who are emerging from the chaos of adolescence, Reviving Ophelia is a call to arms, offering important tactics, empathy, and strength, and urging a change where young hearts can flourish again, and rediscover and reengage their sense of self.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]) and index.
Preface -- Saplings in the storm -- Theoretical issues, for your own good -- Developmental issues, "I'm not waving, I'm drowning" -- Families, the root systems -- Mothers -- Fathers -- Divorce -- Within the hurricane, depression -- Worshiping the gods of thinness -- Drugs and alcohol, if Ophelia were alive today -- Sex and violence -- Then and now -- What I've learned from listening -- Let a thousand flowers bloom -- Fence at the top of the hill -- Recommended reading -- Index -- Reader's guide.
Describes the psychological pitfalls faced by teenage girls growing up in a dangerous world in which violence, sexual harassment, eating disorders, promiscuity, and drug use have become the norm.