Women and Desire : Beyond Wanting to Be Wanted

by YOUNG-EISENDRATH, POLLY PHD

• ISBN13: 9780609603710
• ISBN10: 060960371X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Harmony

Summary

An internationally recognized Jungian analyst and psychologist helps women reclaim true desire for themselves. Not since Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex has female desire been explored so deeply and provocatively. This groundbreaking book delves into the complex world of female desire where women simply "want to be wanted." Many women encourage others to identify or validate images that give them feelings of worth or vitality and then feel resentful because they have sacrificed their real needs and desires. Instead of knowing who they really are and what they would like to do with their lives, they become trapped in their images. As a result, self-direction, self-confidence, and self-determination are undermined from adolescence through old age. Dr. Polly Young-Eisendrath examines this damaging syndrome of female development, showing women, and girls, how to untangle themselves from the web of reflected images that confuses or conceals their authentic wants and needs. Women and Desire empowers women to understand and take control of their sexual, social, and spiritual lives.

Author Biography

Polly Young-Eisendrath, ph.d., is a psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst practicing in Burlington, Vermont, where she is also clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont Medical College. She has published ten books, including The Resilient Spirit, You're Not What I Expected, and Female Authority, as well as many chapters and articles. Dr. Young-Eisendrath lectures worldwide on the topic of women's development.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xiii
ONE Wanting to Be Wanted	1	(32)
TWO The Menace of Female Beauty	33	(24)
THREE Sex through the Looking Glass	57	(27)
FOUR Hothouse Mothering and the Divine Child	84	(38)
FIVE The Material Girl and the Hungry Ghost	122	(31)
SIX The Spiritual Problem of Giving Your Self Away	153	(33)
SEVEN The Paradox of Freedom and Desire	186	(21)
Notes	207	(19)
Bibliography	226	(14)
Index	240