Malkah Notman – författare

This volume presents the knowledge, views, and experiences of ex­ perts in the fields of health care that are particularly important to women. Not all of the authors agree on all of the issues, but all share the same concerns about women''s health and recognize the impor­ tance of providing information to enable women to become active par­ ticipants in the health care partnership. The idea for the book evolved from our own work in the field of women''s health care. The positive responses we received to several papers and presentations based on our experiences and addressed to patients, physicians, and other health care professionals indicated that there is a growing need for open discussion of women''s health care issues as well as a need for developing and implementing new and better ways of dealing with these issues. We were further motivated by the repeated failure of the health care community to integrate new insights and information (that frequently contradict older, established beliefs and practices) into current health planning, education, and practice.

This volume presents the knowledge, views, and experiences of ex­ perts in the fields of health care that are particularly important to women. Not all of the authors agree on all of the issues, but all share the same concerns about women's health and recognize the impor­ tance of providing information to enable women to become active par­ ticipants in the health care partnership. The idea for the book evolved from our own work in the field of women's health care. The positive responses we received to several papers and presentations based on our experiences and addressed to patients, physicians, and other health care professionals indicated that there is a growing need for open discussion of women's health care issues as well as a need for developing and implementing new and better ways of dealing with these issues. We were further motivated by the repeated failure of the health care community to integrate new insights and information (that frequently contradict older, established beliefs and practices) into current health planning, education, and practice.

This volume continues some of the issues raised in Volume 2 and fo­ cuses more closely on therapeutic intervention. The theoretical discus­ sion of aggression provides a background for the presentation of pat­ terns of aggression and violence affecting women, as well as possible connections between physical and emotional symptoms and indirect expressions of aggression. The section on aggression against and by women is an extension of some of the content of The Woman Patient, Volume 1 (e. g. , the chapter on rape). Theoretical and clinical views that are not often linked in this fashion are included here because we are interested in understanding the development of a self-concept that incorporates the constructive aspects of "aggression" as well as an un­ derstanding of violence. In this context, loss, abandonment, delin­ quency, and child and adolescent suicide are also extensions of these issues. The chapters that follow address aspects of symptom formation and concepts of illness. There is, as yet, no definitive explanation for why women experience certain illness patterns more or less than men. Current considerations have been reviewed, but these do not answer. They are a beginning on which we must build. It is apparent that any discussion of these subjects better elucidates the complexity if it in­ cludes an intermingling of general problems with concrete symptoms. Those specific problems that are usually thought of as psychological such as depression, and behaviors (such as substance abuse) provide a focus for understanding wider issues.