Feminism is a beneficial force in addictions therapy as they have the same goals--mending imbalances of power. A variety of important topics related to addictions treatment are addressed in this timely volume, accompanied by concrete clinical solutions for therapists and counselors to use in their own practice. Feminism and Addiction demonstrates the positive impact feminism can have on addictions treatment. Addictions treatment methods that have been developed primarily based on research with men are examined and questioned to determine what changes need to be made to meet the needs of women. The applicability of twelve-step treatment programs, for example, is investigated as to whether its required adoption of belief in powerlessness is concurrent with feminism’s battle with female subjugation. This thought-provoking volume contains the most current theoretical, social, and clinical issues enmeshed in the debates between men’s experiences and women’s experiences of addiction. Critical issues addressed include advice for how to deal with issues of codependency; how to treat clients faced with physical or sexual abuse in addition to addiction; how to integrate cultural differences into treatment; and how to face the particular difficulties of gay and lesbian clients in addictions treatment. This valuable book will help you apply constructivist approaches to build therapy methods which are collaborative, internal, and organic, thus more appropriate to treating women’s experience with addiction. Feminism and Addiction helps family therapists who work with women and their families strike a unique balance between the principles of feminism and family therapy’s goal of repairing and healing relationships between men and women.

This book is dedicated to the memories of Robert Branham, my professor at Bates College, whose teaching, scholarship, and humanity continue to inspire and sustain me, and to my grandma, Dorothy Grosser, whose beauty, spirit, and love are with me all the time. I would also like to thank Leighton Pierce, Franklin Miller, Michael McGee, Lauren Rabinowitz, Doris Witt, Camille Seaman, and Bruce Gronbeck at the University of Iowa for their wisdom, guidance, generosity, and support. I am especially grateful to Barbara Biesecker, my teacher, colleague, and friend, who offered perceptive comments on the manuscript and unfailing encouragement. My appreciation also goes out to the University of Iowa Graduate College, which assisted me with the award of a Seashore Dissertation Year Fellowship. At Syracuse University, I am indebted to Jane Marsching, Doug Dubois, Mark Durant, Jude Lewis, John Orentlicher, Loren Schwerd, and Owen Shapiro for their art, friendship, and constructive advice. Additional thanks go to John Sloop, and Catherine Murphy, Lisa Wigutoff, and Myia Williams at Westview Press.

Elizabeth Ettorre offers a clear account of women and substance use in a field which has been resistant to a woman-oriented perspective. The authors of most "addiction studies" view women as stigmatized and marginalized. Ettorre strongly counters this perspective. She focuses specifically on women's use of alcohol, prescribed drugs (specifically minor tranquilizers), heroin, tobacco, and food. Using the term "substance use" rather than "abuse" throughout the text, she directly challenges ideas regarding women in the field of addiction. More significantly, Ettorre deliberately puts forward a feminist perspective rooted in the identity and consciousness of women substance users. In order to expose the major misconception held by both clinicians and researchers in the field--that women substance abusers are a homogeneous group--Ettorre provides separate analyses of the different substances used and abused by women. She emphasizes the types of feminist strategies to use in the substance abuse field which will mobilize women. These strategies, she argues, must become increasingly visible if changes are to occur. Women need to build an alternative creative response which challenges the pervasive dogmatism in the substance abuse field.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An unflinching examination of how our drinking culture hurts women and a gorgeous memoir of how one woman healed herself.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed “You don’t know how much you need this book, or maybe you do. Either way, it will save your life.”—Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEO The founder of the first female-focused recovery program offers a groundbreaking look at alcohol and a radical new path to sobriety. We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at baby showers and work events, brunch and book club, graduations and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol’s ubiquity—in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn’t drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don’t imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but. When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety, but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What’s more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Fueled by her own emerging feminism, she also realized that the predominant systems of recovery are archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women and other historically oppressed people—who don’t need to lose their egos and surrender to a male concept of God, as the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous state, but who need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own identities and take control of their lives. When Holly found an alternate way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their way as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it. Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit Like a Woman is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again.

In our society, sex can easily become the price many women pay for love and the illusion of security. A woman who seeks a sense of personal power and an escape from pain may use sex and romance as a way to feel in control, just as an alcoholic uses alcohol; but sex never satisfies her longing for love and self-worth. In this wise and compassionate book, Charlotte Kasl shows women how they can learn to experience their sexuality as a source for love and positive power and sex as an expression that honors the soul as well as the body.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. Examining the impact of drug criminalisation on a previously overlooked demographic, this book argues that women are disproportionately affected by a flawed policy approach.

"Top feminist scholars apply a feminist lens to the ways American society defines and shapes women's sexuality. Sexuality, while experienced at the individual level, is a social phenomenon: Its meaning is dynamic and emerges from the social context. Power and politics tend to dictate what sexual attitudes and behaviors are considered normal and typical for girls and women, frequently with negative consequences for women's well-being and the well-being of society as a whole. Here is an alternative, more positive approach to understanding an important area of behavior."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

How can scientific theories contribute to contemporary accounts of embodiment in the humanities and social sciences? In particular, how does neuroscientific research facilitate new approaches to theories of mind and body? Feminists have frequently criticized the neurosciences for biological reductionism, yet, Elizabeth A. Wilson argues, neurological theories—especially certain accounts of depression, sexuality, and emotion—are useful to feminist theories of the body. Rather than pointing toward the conventionalizing tendencies of the neurosciences, Wilson emphasizes their capacity for reinvention and transformation. Focusing on the details of neuronal connections, subcortical pathways, and reflex actions, she suggests that the central and peripheral nervous systems are powerfully allied with sexuality, the affects, emotional states, cognitive appetites, and other organs and bodies in ways not fully appreciated in the feminist literature. Whether reflecting on Simon LeVay’s hypothesis about the brains of gay men, Peter Kramer’s model of depression, or Charles Darwin’s account of trembling and blushing, Wilson is able to show how the neurosciences can be used to reinvigorate feminist theories of the body.

This book provides an historical account of feminism, exploring its earliest roots and key issues such as voting rights and the liberation of the sixties. Margaret Walters brings the subject completely up to date by providing a global analysis of the situation of women, from Europe and the United States to Third World countries.

With an emphasis on violence against women and on women's responses to it - such as depression, splitting and eating disturbances - this volume furthers the radicalization of feminist therapy. It serves as a comprehensive introduction for trainees and as an ongoing resource for social service workers and therapists. Providing detailed and grounded guidance, the author examines feminist approaches to working with women and discusses issues often omitted or pathologized in general feminist counselling texts, including prostitutes battered by pimps and self-mutilation. She explores such central questions as how women can empower themselves in a sexist society; what forms internalized oppression takes and how clients can be hel