Dr. Pipher uses Ophelia as a metaphor for today's adolescent girls. A teenager herself, Ophelia had no sense of self-worth. She looked to her father for approval and guidance and Hamlet for love. Finding neither, she drowned herself. Today's teenage girls are drowning in a culture that provides impossible standards of beauty and behavior; and gives no approval.
Although Dr. Pipher concentrates on girls, the general theory could apply to teenage boys and girls. The theory discusses how teens are encouraged to break away from the family and be their own person, just when they need the family's ability to cope with societal influences. She discusses the adolescent's relationships with mothers, fathers and peers. Each section on theory is further substantiated through many case studies. Interestingly, Dr. Pipher states that many of her clients have only discussed their junior high years when they were in high school; being unable and unwilling to articulate their problems during their early teenage years. Many of Dr. Pipher's case studies deal with 'lookism' - "... the evaluation of a person solely on the basis of appearance" (page 23). Very few (if any) strong female role models exist for to day's girls. Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking are eleven. Cindy Crawford and Iman are part of a very small, super thin, very tall segment of the population. Most rock stars take controlled substances. Hillary Rodham Clinton is ridiculed.
The case studies are interesting: the girls whose parents are very strict and controlling; the parents who are so understanding of rebellion that their daughter has taken rebellion to the extreme; the girls who are into self-mutilation or have eating disorders; the girl in the middle of a bitter custody battle. But is this a true representation of adolescent society? Or is it a collection of interesting cases selected to sell a book? We recalled our own adolescence, the adolescence of our sisters and of our children. It is different world now. Reviving Ophelia... offers hope and proof that adolescent girls can and do survive.