Woman as Healer

by Jeanne Achterberg

Book Overview

This groundbreaking work examines the role of women in the Western healing traditions. Drawing on the disciplines of history, anthropology, botany, archaeology, and the behavioral sciences, Jeanne Achterberg discusses the ancient cultures in which women worked as independent and honored healers; the persecution of women healers in the witch hunts of the Middle Ages; the development of midwifery and nursing as women's professions in the nineteenth...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877736162
• ISBN13: 9780877736165
• Release Date: March 1991
• Publisher: Shambhala
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A life-changing read!

I started reading this for my Women's Health course and could NOT put it down. If you are looking for a general yet intelligent and emotional overview of women's history of healing (or lack thereof) this text is for you. I highly recommend it!

Excellent well researched book on woman healers

Excellent well researched book on the roots and history of woman in medicine and healing. Jeanne Achterberg does an excellent job with a difficult subject. Most of the written documentation about women has been destroyed or misinterpreted by male scholars throughout history. One must be a thorough detective to sift through all of the documentation to find information on this subject.Her interpretations are fair and,I believe, totally valid. This book is for anyone who is a healer or works in the medical profession or those of us who understand the bias in research writen by white european males. To those of you who disparage such work, because of lack of evidence, I suggest you look toward your spirit, and contemplate the injustice of destroying the evidence of the past and then writing your own history to justify the power you hold.