World Famous Comics: Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
By: Mary Pipher Publisher: Riverhead Trade Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Riverhead Trade Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 304 Publication Date: August 01, 2005
Amazon.com: At adolescence, says Mary Pipher, "girls become 'female impersonators' who fit their whole selves into small, crowded spaces." Many lose spark, interest, and even IQ points as a "girl-poisoning" society forces a choice between being shunned for staying true to oneself and struggling to stay within a narrow definition of female. Pipher's alarming tales of a generation swamped by pain may be partly informed by her role as a therapist who sees troubled children and teens, but her sketch of a tougher, more menacing world for girls often hits the mark. She offers some prescriptions for changing society and helping girls resist.
Product Description: The phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller. More than 1.5 million copies sold. Now available from Riverhead.
This is the groundbreaking work that poses one of the most provocative questions of a generation: Why are American adolescent girls falling prey to depression, eating disorders, suicide attempts, and dangerously low self-esteem? Dr. Pipher posits that it's America's sexist, look-obsessed "girl-poisoning" culture-one in which girls are constantly struggling to find their true selves. In Reviving Ophelia, these girls' uncensored voices are heard from the front lines of adolescence. Personal and painfully honest, this is a compassionate call to arms, offering strategies with which to revive these Ophelias' lost senses of self.
Hopefully there are better books for our girls than this ... While the book had some insights, I nevertheless found it simplistic, unscientific and disappointing. Whoever gave Mary Pipher her Ph.D. must be cringing. The usual suspects are to blame for the problems plagueing our young girls, including the 'feminist' fan favorite, the 'girl-poisioning' society. If you like this kind of pop psychology, then this book is for you. If you are a more serious reader, then move onto something else and save your money. I particularly like the section in the book where Dr. Pipher mentions that '...she knows very little about [the psychology] of boys...' and then spends the next several pages proving it. It can be argued that growing up today is harder than in previous generations and our young girls need help. Sadly, so does this book.
Still a Neccesary Read This is the book that parents and girls need to read and discuss.
I read this as a girl myself, and it allowed me to see my behavior in new, helpful light.
Now I am a mom myself, and one of my children is a girl, so I read it again- and still, it speaks to me in a profound way. I hope it makes me a better mom in the same way that it made me a better adolescent.
However, it does need to be updated, not just because the case studies now seem dated, but also because Pipher unflinchingly discusses the problems with schools. Since homeschooling has grown a good deal in the years since this book's initial publication, I think it is a neccesary componenent to explore, perhaps even as a partial solution for many of the problems outlined in this book.
book I heard good things about this book. I look foward to reading it. It came quickly.
Reviving Ophelia I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book. Dr. Pipher does an outstanding job of exploring all the issues adolescent girls are struggling with.
Useful as a piece of the puzzle for puberty-panicked teen girls... As the parent of an apparently bipolar daughter who is about to turn 16, and whose symptoms destroyed her parents' marriage, coming as they did just before her 13th birthday, I had hopes this book would give me some tips on how to help her from the status of non-custodial dad, now living 600 miles from her (not due to my moving, but her mom's.) Alas, it was not any real help in that specific problem area. It really does not address bipolar disorder itself, anyway, although it touches upon the related troubles of eating disorders, depression and social anxiety. Some of Dr. Pipher's insights, opinions and experiences are helpful in figuring out what went wrong in the way her mother and I tried to cope with her suddenly dangerous and hostile choices. However, the book suffers, surprisingly, from a feeling that too much of it is "dated" now. It was created in the early 1990's, and Dr. Pipher relies far too much on pop culture references from that time which have faded in the consciousness of even many adults, but which surely would mystify any teen girls who read it in 2007. While rebellion, early sex, anorexia, bulimia, sucides, suicide attempts, running away, smoking, illegal drugs, alcohol, tatooing and piercing are certainly still major problems in this population, I kept feeling while I was reading that this is no longer a work with many answers for parents. Maybe it's just me. Maybe if I had read it three years ago I could have saved my family. Surely, however, we need a new version of this one, to reflect the times, temptations and troubles of 2008.
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