Saving the selves of adolescent girls by Mary Pipher

The author of the book resurrecting Ophelia is Pipher, a doctoral-level writer. She has authored several more books in addition to this one, including the terrible search for thinness of American women and the protection of each other. After writing prior books, she was compelled to create Reviving Ophelia due to a variety of problems affecting adolescent girls, including self-mutilation, alcohol and drug abuse, eating disorders, an increase in teen suicide cases, among other things. Moreover, during her tenure as a person who helps people with mental problems, she was overwhelmed by numbers of girls who were flocking her place and this forced her to share their insights in her book. In addition to the above, Mary identified some of the issues that increase these cases like culture among others and that the harassment of these girls has increased today.

Part B

Mary stresses the need for a better environment where these girls can be allowed to develop freely. For example one of the characters Heidi who had developed an eating disorder was being caused by peer pressures and this forced her to live a totally difficult life, hence seeking for therapist’s help.The author goes ahead to explore some other issues that affect the development of young girls. For example, different cultural background affects the development of these girls. This can be exemplified by the fact that, a girl named Francesca was brought up by parents who are Caucasian by nature and yet she is a Lakota, is experiencing a problem of identification of her cultural background. Moreover, blending in a community where you do not have the same origin is presumed to be very difficult for those young girls.

Furthermore, the author also notices how different communities react to traits of adolescents. For example, Angela who is sixteen years was chased by her family after becoming pregnant and the boy responsible never gave her any support, which forced her to seek the counsel of Mary as a therapist. Moreover, this might not only cause physical harm but might also have permanent effects on this young girl (Erin, 2010).

Part C

The information relates to families theories and current research in the following ways;

The importance of this book is that most parents do not know who interacts with their children or just minor issues that might be happening in their lives. It should be further noted that very few people know what it means growing up in communities that are developing very fast together with peer pressures and developmental issues that are associated with it

Another important factor to note is cultures. It has been argued that societies are not necessarily the same but have different cultures. Hence efforts to promote cultures which are similar in societies will not only lead to the writing of books like this one, but it leads to increased cases of psychiatrists and becoming a prisoner of cultures. Furthermore, this book also illustrated the urgency of clear communication between teachers and parents. This will help the parents to acquire thorough information about adolescents and how they can handle these cases of teenagers.

In conclusion, this book illustrates the importance of empowering these young girls such that they can develop self-esteem and be able to come up with right decisions in their lives. This is because in most cases you find young girls stuck with problems which force them to come up with irrational decisions.

References

Erin A. (2010). "Movie of 'Reviving Ophelia' looks at struggles of today's teen girls". The Lincoln Journal Star. Retrieved 7 May 2012