Story of Her Own

Nancy Kulish, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the department of psychiatry, school of medicine at Wayne State University, and adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Detroit. Dr. Kulish is in private practice in Birmingham, Michigan.Deanna Holtzman, Ph.D. is a training and supervising analyst and past president of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. Dr. Holzman is associate professor in the department of psychiatry, School of Medicine at Wayne State University.

The authors' ideas are both compelling and nuanced, reflecting an enlightened contemporary structural approach informed by gender and feminist, object relational, and intersubjective perspectives. there is fascinating material as well on the meaning and role of language, myth, and metaphor. Their review of the vast literature on female psychology is clear and systematic. the book contains much that will be of immediate practical value to the practicing clinician, demonstrating from multiple angles how the authors apply their ideas in helping their patients nurture and liberate their passion, pride and authority as women. Abundant and detailed clinical material illustrates such things as the interplay in women's lives between dyadic and triadic, separation and individuation, and family and work, as well as the special problems common to all women's lives, such as female aggression, shame, guilt, and issues with their female bodily life and sexuality. All clinicians, be they men or women, will find especially useful the extensive material on the common countertransference problems that arise in the treatment of women patients and the egosyntonic theoretical beliefs that contribute to these problems.