Trauma and survival

by Elizabeth A. Waites

In this groundbreaking work, Elizabeth Waites proposes a new concept of female psychology, supported by research, that challenges the notion of the pathologized or "hysterical" woman. Integrating psychological, legal, sociological, and historical research findings, as well as the psychology of women that has evolved over the last two decades, she offers a new model of mental health that considers dissociation and post-traumatic syndromes as normal reactions to trauma and victimization, both within the family and in the wider cultural context. By taking apart patriarchal social constructs, Dr. Waites examines how women are beset on every side with double binds, which force them to adopt coping mechanisms that help integrate these contradictory messages into a liveable reality. Often, these mechanisms are not recognized as being pathological or adaptive because they fit with the perception of the "good" woman.^ In a perceptive and penetrating opening chapter, she makes explicit the causa