Harriet Lerner
Harriet Lerner
Harriet Lerner, Ph.D.,is a clinical psychologist and a contributor to feminist theory and therapy. From 1972 to 2001 she was a staff psychologist at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas and a faculty member and supervisor in the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry. During this time she published extensively on the psychology of women and family relationships, revising traditional psychoanalytic concepts to reflect feminist and family systems perspectives. Her son is the National Book Award-nominated poet and novelist Ben Lerner...
two intimacy intensity
Intensity is not the same as intimacy, although we tend to confuse these two words.
girl women anxiety
The term girl not only serves to avoid certain anxiety-arousing connotations inherent in the word woman regarding aggression, sexuality, and reproduction, it also serves to impart a tone of frivolousness and lack of seriousness to ambitious, intellectual, and competitive striving that women may pursue.
silence threat difficult
Silence can pose a greater threat than the difficult truth.
lying impossible easy
As many have observed, it is easy to tell a lie, but it is almost impossible to tell only one.
mother believe men
Believing that all women should want to be mothers makes about as much sense as believing that all men should want to be engineers.
motherhood feelings hazards
Feeling inadequate is an occupational hazard of motherhood.
joy may pretending
Pretending can be a bold form of experimentation and inventiveness. In pretending joy or happiness, we may discover or enhance our capacity for it.
book self insecurity
Self-help books for women are part of a multibillion-dollar industry, sensitively attuned to our insecurities and our purses.
communication knowing matter
the body, seeking truth, sends a signal. But decoding it, interpreting its meaning, and knowing how to proceed from there is another matter entirely.
taken past reality
My debt to feminism is simply incalculable. Feminism allowed me to see past a 'reality' that I had once taken as a given. It helped me to pay attention to countless voices, my own included, that I had been taught 'don't count.' Feminism allows me to maintain hope.
anxiety illness psychiatric
When anxiety disrupts functioning, it's psychiatric illness.
sex men conversation
Men are often (though not always) the pursuers for sex, just like women are often (though not always) the pursuers for conversation.
good-enough enough reason
Love alone is never a good enough reason to marry.
love-yourself wells persons
It's a cliché, but also a deep truth (as cliché's tend to be), that you can't love another person very well if you don't love yourself.