Overview

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.