The book Reviving Ophelia, by Mary Pipher, Ph.D., is described as "An eye-opening look at the everyday dangers of being young and female, and how adults can help." The main point of this book is to teach the world that growing up as a teenager can be very difficult, and that while the outside world is changing around them, their insides are also changing. Between the ages of 12 and 17 it is especially difficult for women. Mary Pipher describes several reasons for this, mostly related to America's "poisonous" culture, and how parents can help their daughters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher gives examples of many patients she has seen over the years as a therapist. She writes about girls who have promiscuous sex, take drugs, smoke cigarettes and abuse alcohol. It tells of girls with eating disorders, who refuse to go to school and cut themselves. Dr. Pipher writes that early in her career as a therapist, she really couldn't understand why so many preteen and teen girls had such severe psychological problems. Analyzing American culture, she concluded that we live in an age that poisons girls and their self-image. It tells of girls (and women) who sacrifice their true self for a false self that will please others and make them fit for the role of a woman. Mary Pipher takes on some psychological perspectives in this book, but none in a very rigorous way. For one thing, he has some sociocultural views. He writes about the culture of poisoning in America. By saying that our world is a girl-hating, pain-inflicting place, he seems to be talking about our world as America, to the exclusion of other countries. Maybe in other countries girls feel better about themselves and grow up with fewer emotional and psychological problems, but he doesn't talk about this in the book. Dr. Pipher also takes some behavioral opinions. She writes that when girls give up their true selves and take on a false self, they receive a kind of reward from their parents and the world around them, which reinforces the denial of their true selves. While pleasing others, they punish themselves. Finally, he takes psychoanalytic views. He analyzes many of the girls he has had therapy with and their behaviors. He believes that the way they behave and the person they portray themselves on the outside all comes from how they feel and what they are going through in their mind. He believes that for the most part everything that happens with girls has a deeper meaning. For example, if a girl has a bad body image or an eating disorder as a result, she must be poisoned by the culture of fashion magazines with skinny models. Dr. Pipher could have taken a more biological perspective, saying that some of the emotional and mental problems that girls in this age group have are due to the chemical makeup of their brains. Also, mental illness is sometimes hereditary, so he could have looked at their parents to see if that had any connection to why they were going through these difficulties. Please note: this is just a sample. Get a customized document from our expert writers now. Get a Custom EssayReading this book, I had mixed feelings. Dr. Pipher had many good points, with supporting information. He mentioned many other psychologists and brought interesting stories about his therapies. She has written extensively about how our society and culture in America influences the way girls and young women think about themselves. To some extent I think that's very true, you see.