Trusting Ourselves

Karen Johnson was my psychiatrist for a number of years, beginning just as this book was coming out. She walks the walk as well as she talks the talk in this book. She treats patients like responsible adults, not helpless children; and she believes that people who have "emotional problems" can discover from within the ways to solve the problems. This book is extraordinary in that is is very simply written, with a minimum of medical jargon and no intellectual superiority at all; and the material is presented very directly. It's almost an istruction book on how to create yourself emotionally healthy again. I think a revised version is due; lots of research has come out since 1991.

This wonderful text really describes the unhappiness so many women feel. The good news is, that most of our feelings have more to do with the way we learned to cope within a society or environment that is not geared to serving our needs, rather than due to some personal flaw of ours. This book may also help us to wean off the awful habit of collecting too many self-help books, because it encourages trust in our inner wisdom. As a woman who has made it a personal project to enlighten women who are suffering in 12-step based substance abuse programs, because such programs often reinforce our self-doubt, this text is a fantastic part of the solution!!! Imagine trusting ourselves once and for all, instead of the systems, programs, doctors, mates, etc. that we had more faith in than in ourselves! Thank you Karen Johnson, for this very liberating work!

The approach to psychological care for women, is where Johnson and Ferguson diverge from much of the past literature. Like me, they know a woman's experience is different from a man's by virtue of their differing genders. Women's concerns are not dismissed, discounted, trivialized, marginalized, or described/interpreted from an exclusively male perspective. The authors acknowledge and affirm that many women understand why they are not happy with their lives. They recommend this as a valid starting point for the work a client and therapist do together.