The book is still relevant, especially in our current political and social climate. I wish she were here to read it I’d love to hear her thoughts on it. That psychology professor of mine that I mentioned earlier? She died three years ago from breast cancer, and I can’t help but think she’d be so interested in the new version of this book-maybe even add it to her Psychology of Women syllabus. It brought voices to issues previously unspoken, it spotlighted how society and culture harmed girls in many ways, it started necessary cultural conversations, and in some respects, it was a call to arms for therapists, parents, and teachers. Twenty-five years ago, Reviving Ophelia was a groundbreaking book. I only have a son, who is a toddler, so I also imagine that I’d be reading this differently if I had a daughter, especially a teenage daughter. In other ways, reading it was like being slapped in the face with the reality of just how different things are now than they were 25 years ago, despite many constants. In some ways, opening this book was like starting up a conversation with an old friend that had dropped ages ago but was picked right back up as if no time passed at all. Reading this as an adult, as a parent, has been a much different experience than reading it as a teenager or college student. By signing up you agree to our terms of use Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. Pipher gave voices to these girls, she gave the reader a glimpse into what they brought to her offices, and then generalized aspects of it to the larger population with compassion and insight. The way I remember it, the 1990s were bursting with feminist research and books: Peggy Orenstein, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Inga Muscio, Andrea Dworkin, Mary Pipher-and adolescent girls were the focus. Through it all, Reviving Ophelia has stuck with me. I left that program and earned my MS in clinical health psychology, which I later parlayed into public health work. She and I talked about Reviving Ophelia and I often returned to the book whenever I wondered whether I still really wanted to pursue a career in psychology.Īfter college, I went right into a clinical psychology doctoral program, where I quickly realized that my Rogerian/Jungian/May leanings weren’t exactly suited to the particular program I was in. She was also a writer, and we would talk about literature, books, writing, and the arts.

I took her classes, worked on independent studies with her, and she became my psychology mentor.

She later joined the psychology faculty, and except for her time at Semester at Sea, she and I worked together every semester of my undergraduate career. She was an outspoken and brilliant feminist. This professor was the Director of the Counseling Center when I was a freshman, and was well-known for her work with adolescents, especially adolescent girls, and college students. In undergrad, I did indeed major in psychology and found a Dr.

Reviving ophelia author