PARTISAN REVIEW
285
it obstructs and postpones the possibility of advancing and restructuring
personal destiny.
Chesler is an associate of the Feminist Therapy Collective. The cur–
rent feminist approaoh to the treatment of women focuses on issues of
rage, depression, and aggression. "I'm getting a hundred letters a week,"
says Dr. Chesler in
The New York Times
of December 27, 19'72. "It is
clear
that for educated, middle-class women, the therapist no longer must
be
a male authority figure - as God
was
once a man...." The aban–
donment of her Third World sisters is evident. And in this they may be
thankful. She may have been offered it, but Chesler
has
not availed her–
self of the education or training that would enable her to comprehend
the
meanings
of rage, aggression, or depression in anyone.
Women and Madness
has
won the sympathies of many feminists.
Even
those who do not really respect Ohesler have gone on to patronize
her because she appears to have taken the ultimate radical stance, par–
ticularly Wlith regard ,to bisexuality, lesbianism, and her definitive rejec–
tion of maleness. However, most should be able to see that beneath Ches–
ler's Amazon breast beats the heart of Rebbeca of Sunnybrook Farm.
At this point in the feminist movement
esprit de corps
must no longer in–
terfere with self-critical refleotion. We might do well to heed Camus's
1957
observatJions on the
confoI1IIl~ty
of the left. The movemeIlit, he
writes:
. needs doctoring through pi,tiless self-criticism, exercise of the
heart, close reasoning, and a little modesty. Until such an effort at
reexamination is well U'Ilder way, any ralying will be useless and even
harmful. Meanwhile, the intellectual's role will be to say that the
king is naked when he is, and not to go into raptures over his
imaginary trappings.
So,
let's put away the fairy tales and get on with it.
Louise
J.
Kaplan
