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state and national elections: "I went to bed last night a slave, I awoke this morning a free woman: My vote counts as much as any Negro's—as any dago's. Oh! it's glorious." She grew up a free and independent girl who herded cattle for her father on horseback as Indians passed by on the open plain. Later, after the deaths and lifelong loss of her Mother and favorite sister, she spent a number of peripatetic years attempting to establish herself as a working woman. She taught, and, in small towns, worked in a number of hotels as waitress and chambermaid. Eventually she moved to Kansas City where she met her first husband Johnny Shaw, a postal delivery man. She has numerous doubts about this marriage and they proved well founded as Johnny became an alcoholic and quite verbally abusive. Her poignant entries speak to the despair of a woman literally trapped in a marriage going nowhere down the long line to the future. She mentions several friends who divorced but rejects that alternative for herself. The marriage vow represented a serious moral commitment which she felt she must uphold no matter how unhappy or uncomfortable. She suffered three miscarriages but gave birth to her "wee girlie" in 1892. Unfortunately, this child lived only a few months and Martha suffered her loss desperately. She would never bear another child. During this time, her husband contracted TB and they took an arduous journey to Los Angeles, hoping that the climate would prove helpful. Martha knew he was too far gone. Her entries about his suffering combined with her resentment of his continued mistreatment are an eloquent portrait of an intimate conflict. Relief at his death in 1893 brought the determination never to marry again; but shortly thereafter she married Fred Farnsworth, also a postal worker. This was a very happy association and they remained faithful helpmates for life. It is thanks to Fred's second wife that the diary of 4,000 pages was kept safely and donated to the Kansas State Historical Society. The diary describes the growth of the community and country as well as Martha's particular life. Games, parties, political issues, inventions, transportation, travel, visiting lecturers, preachers and plays are all delightfully described. Martha interestingly had the gift of second sight and recorded numerous intimations of illness and death. The editors liken her writing style to that of sentimental novels of the day: slightly exaggerated, occasionally moralistic, melodramatic. Yet I feel that view distances her unnecessarily from our present experience. To me, she is an earlier version, indeed the underlapping, to aspects of my own mother, born 1902. A superb small town clubwoman, she was emjouMEDICAL SUPPLIES CORPORATION "Suppliers to the Trade" 228 Sherwood Ave. Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735 (516)420-1700 capable of organizing any one or 10 events with her hands tied. Yet to hear her describe the difficulties of achieving exactly what she wanted (and got) was to listen to high drama. Martha's diary brings those same self-aggrandizing, endearing complaints echoing from past to present, bringing forth completely a feeling of continuity with the small town, heartland American life which we all inherit. —Nancy Lloyd WOMEN, POWER AND THERAPY, edited by Marjorie Braude (Harrington Park Press, N.Y.; $14.95 paperback) and AGAINST PSYCHOTHERAPY by Jeffrey Moussaief Masson (Athenium, N.Y.; $18.95 hardcover) I do have a bias in approaching these two books: For the past decade I've felt increasing alarm at the skill with which the powers-that-be have employed medicine/psychotherapy to mask social problems; to defuse social protest. Historically, for instance, a man's sexual use of his child was as socially permitted (for those who chose to act on that permission) as the beating of his wife. Yet within moments of the "discovery"of the widespread incidence of child sexual exploitation in the home, incest was declared a "symptom of family dysfunction". We had incest counselors, incest therapists, offender treatment programs, family therapy, and on and on. Perhaps most alarming was not that society was so comfortable with individualizing a problem of licensed power abuse—but that the victims themselves were so earnestly and eagerly enlisted in this effort to make the political the personal. At issue in Jeffrey Masson's book, Against Psychotherapy, is whether psychotherapy as concept can—even potentially—be a benevolent force. He begins: ' 'This is a book about why I believe psychotherapy, of any kind, is wrong. Although I criticize many individual therapies and therapists, my main objective is to point out that the very idea of psychotherapy is wrong. The structure of psychotherapy is such that no matter how kindly a person is, when that person becomes a therapist, he or she [sic] engages in acts that are bound to diminish the dignity, autonomy, and freedom of the person who comes for help." Masson certainly builds an excellent case. From the chilling stories of the use of the "diagnosis"of "moral insanity"to confine non-conforming women of the 19th century in France, through Freud and Fliess' gross mistreatment of "Dora", through the sins and sadisms of John Rosen, Masson builds a clear and convincing case, with compelling evidence. Masson writes that often he is asked, "Granted that psychotherapy is flawed, what would I put in it's place that is better?" In reply, he quotes a feminist friend: "Nobody thinks of asking: what would you replace misogyny 20
with? If something is bad, or flawed, or dangerous, it is enough if we expose it for what it is. It is almost as if once it has been determined that something exists, we decide it must be there for a reason (undoubtedly true) and then slide into the false position that it must be there for a good reason, which is undoubtedly not true." Placed alongside that, Women, Power and Therapy—& collection of papers presented at the 1983-1984 Women's Institute, sponsored by the American Orthopsychiatric Association and edited by Marjorie Braude—is necessarily less coherent. The occasion for this cross-disciplinary dialogue, is the struggle by "many of us in the mental health field" for professional recognition—"from our states, insurance companies, national organization, and even our peers." The struggle, that is, for recognition by the mainstream medical/psychotherapy field. It is that will to belong to the club that perhaps speaks best to the concern Masson raises. It is not unknown that the price of the ticket of admission to most professions is that you check your non-conforming political persuasions at the door. Nonetheless, much in the book speaks to serious feminist issues; and certainly many of the papers validate women's reality in this culture. "Depressed people are not 'sick',"writes Gretchen Grinnell. "Rather they are mistaken in believing that they themselves are malfunctioning while those who dominate them are 'well'. The opposite is often true—depression is a correct reaction to a disordered surround." This is exciting to read precisely because it is true; but it raises and leaves hanging a critical question. What, besides challenging the "disordered surround", politically, is going to make any significant difference—even for the "depressed"individual? There was no question in the mind of Hersilie Rouy, institutionalized in 19th century France (as Masson recounts from her diaries) that she was perfectly sane in an insane place, or that her protests of that were increasingly inconvenient. Then, as now, however, the way to be perceived as "cured"by those who hold power in the mental health industry is to "admit"that you were "sick". Unexamined here is the very sticky question of what health is. Is it feeling comfortable? The delusion may be a more successful place to be than reality. Is it "high self-esteem"? Sociopaths seem to have that in surplus. "A further criticism of traditional therapy," writes Charlotte Krause Prozan in her paper "An Integration of Feminist and Psychoanalytic Theory", is ' 'that its aims at getting the patient to conform and to adjust to an unjust society cannot be countered by getting the patient to conform to what we as feminists or socialist or anti-nuclear activists hold out as our personal vision of what is a just society. If we do, then we are making moral rather than psychological judgments." Well, yes. But we know from feminist analyses of male-generated psychiatric theory and practice that little in the therapist/patient (or client) relationship is value-free. "Treatment" by one person defined as qualified of another defined as having a problem has inherent in it one person's superior take on life. Inherent also are moral judgements: non-conformity, challenging the status quo, whether by your being or your politics, do not tend to lead to passionate approval by society, to success on the job. Of course this is stressful. It is even depressing. But is it worthwhile? There is an uneasy tension in this book (as, no doubt, within the feminist therapy community) between the will to confront what is true—and the desire to be taken "seriously''. Its strongest value is that it raises serious questions. In fact, the issues both these books raise are vital and far-reaching in their implications. Let me not act the guru; read them, think about them—and you decide. —Louise Armstrong Louise Armstrong is the author of KISS DADDY GOODNIGHT, recently re-introduced as KISS DADDY GOODNIGHT: TEN YEARS LATER, with a new Introduction and Afterword. MADE in USA PATENT PENDING ADVANCED RECYCLING SYSTEMS INC. P.O. Box 1796 Waterloo, IA 50704 319-291-6007 Dealers inquires invited RESIDENTIAL RECYCLING KITS DESIGNED FOR EFFICIENT, ORGANIZED, SOURCE SEPARATION Light weight aluminum welded frame separates 4, 6, or 8 color coded and labeled, 8 gal. containers. INDOOR/OUTDOOR STORAGE CONVENIENCE Locking lids control odors and prevent spillage. Molded handles and contour-bottom grips, makes carrying and emptying easy. Covered by a 6 year RubberMaid warranty. HOSPITAL APPROVED This system is currently being used by N.Y. hospitals for safe and easy handling of bio-hazard and chemo waste. The hospitals also stressed the importance of the color code and label system. See us at the MWA Show in Boston, Sept. 7-9, the ICMA Show in Charlotte, Oct. 23-27, and the Waste Tech '88 Show in Boston, Oct. 26-28. Prices and specifications are subject to change without notice. ADVANCED RECYCLING SYSTEMS INC. carries a complete line of collection containers for commercial and residential separation. From Photo and Biodegradeable plastic bags to the latest product. RubberMaids new recycling collection box, made from recycled plastic. 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Page 1 and 2: THE JOURNAL OF SUBSTANCE FOR PROGRE
Page 3 and 4: [ON THE | THE JOURNAL OF SUBSTANCE
Page 5 and 6: may be hard put to collectively art
Page 7 and 8: Stated a spokesman for Denver Gener
Page 9 and 10: BREAKING THE BARRIERS Merle Hoffman
Page 11 and 12: to end it—to withdraw our consent
Page 13 and 14: HIV-POSITIVE WOMEN HAVE RIGHTS T ti
Page 15 and 16: One infected woman was turned away
Page 17 and 18: COUNT ME IN. Here is my subscriptio
Page 19 and 20: THE TEEN WHO JUST SAID "NO!" How a
Page 21 and 22: strike, it may be postponed. I'm al
Page 23: questions and comes up with some ab
Page 27 and 28: THE" COMPASSIONATE CONSUMER ALL NAT
Page 29 and 30: FEEDBACK "Just when I was despairin
Page 31 and 32: is magnified for women through invi
Page 33 and 34: CLOTHING TIRED OF A "MANPOWERED" WO

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