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In their book Female Authority: Empowering Women through Psychotherapy, Young-Eisendrath and Weidemann have presented a fascinating conceptualization of the psychological development of women in this society. Jungian psychology, Greek and Roman mythology, and a feminist social perspective serve as the basis upon which the authors build. As a non-Jungian, I struggled somewhat to translate their concepts into my own language and to incorporate those concepts which had no translation. However, the struggle was well worth it. Their ideas seem to have captured something intrinsically right about the experiences of women in this culture.This book is not written for the lay public or beginners in the field of psychology. The concepts are quite complex. The authors draw on material from a wide variety of resources and tie it together expertly. However, they do not explain each reference in detail. An unschooled reader would be likely to lose too much of the overall idea while studying the many details. For those with a basic body of knowledge of psychology and an interest in personality development, I strongly recommend this book, and in fact I already have done so to a number of my colleagues.Because of its complexity, I will not try to describe the model of gender identity development which the authors propose. However, I would like to make note of several points. First, the authors stress that all personality development takes place within a cultural context. This factor is not merely influential but also crucial to the understanding of gender identity development. The authors note that their theory is clearly and necessarily culture bound and is intended to apply to females raised within Western cultures. Second, they propose that females in our society find it necessary to exclude a number of significant personal qualities and behavior patterns from their self-concepts in order to consider themselves feminine. Or, in reverse, if they adopt these qualities as their own, they will likely feel unfeminine or fake (a woman who is not one; like a man but not one). Third, the authors feel strongly that there is no stage of female gender identity development that is free of conflict. They do not postulate a final stage that offers total resolution and freedom from conflict. They feel that cultural changes are necessary before that possibility would exist. Fourth, the development of gender identity is viewed as a lifelong process. Gender identification is frequently described as occurring very early in life, within the first three years, and remaining unaltered throughout life. The authors have taken a lifespan development perspective and have offered a view of personality growth that places gender identity at the center. They acknowledge that many people do not continue to grow throughout their lifetime, but the possibility and the potential are there. The fifth and final point is an emphasis on the strengths and capacities of women and a shift from focusing on psychopathology.Beyond the development of a model of female psy...

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