Perfect Women - HIDDEN FEARS OF INADEQUACY AND THE DRIVE TO PERFORM (Summit Books 1988)

Synopsis
The relationship between self-esteem and achievement-oriented behaviour in women is examined in this book. Dowling maintains "that a 'legacy of self-doubt' is handed down from mother to daughter, one that is disguised--but not cured--by a frantic quest for self-improvement." (Publisher's note) Bibliography.

From the Critics From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly
Dowling, who wrote the popular Cinderella Complex , has tackled a large subject in this study of why so many women today seem so driven to succeed in business, to excel in athletics, to dress to perfection, to be model mothers. In an adroit mixture of psychological case histories, stories from newspapers and magazines and her own experience as mother and daughter, she pursues the reasons for this striving. As often in popularly oriented books about women's difficulties, mother turns out to be the villain. Often insecure herself, she fails to give her daughter an appropriate sense of self-worth, and daughter spends the rest of her life in frantic over-compensation.  Dowling puts this all together neatly, with a wealth of reference, and her book is useful as a quick guide to current personality theory. But the general effect is superficial; the reader longs for longer, more penetrating interviews, even if fewer bases were touched in the process. 

BOMC featured an alternate. (Oct.) From Library Journal - Dowling ( The Cinderella Complex ) here explores the influence of low self-esteem on the contemporary woman's poor body image, need to perform, and desire to be visible and admired in short, her desire to become perfect. What results is frustrating to read. The writing is insightful yet ephemeral, conscientiously researched yet confessional, lucid but also convoluted. Her analysis of female psychological development is often hard to follow, but the cases she uses to illustrate her views are absolutely compelling. Purchase is recommended because ultimately this will be a popular and much-discussed book. 

Kathryn Hammell Carpenter, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago From Gloria Jacobs - Ms.  I'm tired of all these attacks on mothers. And one could easily quibble with the idea that narcissism and the drive to achieve are destroying the happiness of an entire generation of women. But what I'd really like to know . . . is why has feminism come to be associated with highly paid professional women? . . . There are many women--too many--for whom a book like Dowling's is a release from self-doubt. Of itself, Perfect Women might not be so insidious. It does spend too much time blaming women, with hardly a word about the role of men and society in shaping our needs and expectations, but Dowling ends by stating that we women must cherish ourselves, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that.  But the direction in which she takes us is a slippery one.

Die heimliche Angst der Frauen vor der Unabhängigkeit - Taschenbuch gebraucht, jedoch gut erhalten

Women´s hidden fear of independence

Fischer Verlag : Die Frau in der Gesellschaft : Der Ehe-Komplex oder die Sucht nach Beziehungen

" Die Autorin des Bestsellers *Der Cinderella-Komplex* erzählt ihre Geschichte : eine bewegende Biographie ! "

Zustand : ungelesen, etwas bestoßen, aber ordentlich erhalten, keine Eselsohren o.ä.!

Porto: tatsächlich anfallende Kosten nach Absprache

One in four women and one in ten men will experience at least one debilitating episode of depression in the course of their lives.

In this groundbreaking and provocative book, Colette Dowling uncovers the biological basis for severe depression and the related disorders of alcohol and drug abuse, bulimia, phobias and panic anxiety, gambling, kleptomania, and obesity. Dowling's revealing documentation of the latest research challenges society's long-held belief that these illnesses are born out of moral weakness, lack of self-control, or an unhappy childhood. Her book shows instead that, like any number of common physical diseases, mood and anxiety disorders are caused by biochemical imbalances, are often inherited, and most importantly, can be successfully treated with medication.

As Harrison Pope, Jr., M.D., and James I. Hudson, M.D., of Harvard Medical School have said, "Ms. Dowling exposes many of the misconceptions often shared by both patients and therapists - particularly the belief that the patient is somehow responsible for his or her symptoms and can be relieved of them only through hard work."

You Mean I Don't Have to Feel This Way? is an impeccably researched study of the newest advances in psychopharmacology. It presents state-of- the-art medical treatments, how to get them, and how to evaluate whether your physician or therapist is giving you the proper treatment. The book is also a very personal statement by a woman who watched depression destroy her husband's life and leap to the next generation to nearly destroy her daughter's. Upbeat, filled with hope and warmth, You Mean I Don't Have to Feel This Way? will change minds and save lives.

291 pages, published 1998. Chapters: 1- A woman's crisis; 2 - Maxing out in a culture of debt; 3 - The way we spend, when shopping becomes compulsive; 4 - Bag lady dreams, why women are afraid of ending up destitute; 5 - Becoming "cool", how we learn to betray ourselves; 6 - The romance myth, how females get sidetracked from the goal of self-support; 7 - Waking up from the dream of rescue; 8 - Attitudes of the ambivalent; 9 - Building your own castle, getting over the fear of financial independence.

Beauty Secrets the "Experts" Don't Want You to Know.  The Skin Game... cane be painful... can be costly... can be dangerous... can be deadly!

This critical & penetrating look at the beauty business is an expose of cosmetic technicians & plastic surgeons -- purveyors of "the blush of eternal youth & beauty." Colette Dowling examines these practioners from a medical as well as an ethical standpoint & makes a strong case for strict legislative control over businesses which flourish almost without restriction.

The first section deals with aestheticians - cosmetic technicians who remove unwanted hair, peel faces, treat acne scars, & use or sell such devices as spot weight reducers & ozone machines.  The second section of the book is devoted to surgeons who lift faces, remodel noses, boost bosoms, & eliminate bags under eyes.

Published by J.P. Lippincott Company 1971. 1st Edition Stated. 233 pages.