Acknowledgments
Every chapter in this book has many unnamed contributors—pa-
tients, friends, colleagues—who exemplified aspects of each goddess
archetype, or provided insights into them. Most descriptions are
therefore composites of many women, known to me under many
circumstances; especially through twenty years of psychiatric prac-
tice. It is a privilege to be trusted by people who reveal their depths
to me, enabling me to better understand their psychology and
through them, the psychology of others, including myself. My pa-
tients are my best teachers. To all of them, thank you.
I have been blessed and burdened by many editors, each of whom
added to the development of this book and to my growth as a writer
during the three years that I worked on the manuscript: editorial
direction and comment came from Kirsten Grimstad, Kim Chernin,
Marilyn Landau, Jeremy Tarcher, Stephanie Bernstein, and Linda
Purrington, to whom I turned for copyediting. And in the midst of
their differing perspectives, I also learned to trust my own voice and
vision, which was a lesson in itself and led to a change in publishers.
In this, Kim Chernin’s encouragement was especially valuable.
My thanks go also to Nancy Berry, who worked skillfully and
swiftly at the typewriter and computer whenever I called on her for
help; to my literary agents, John Brockman and Katinka Matson,
who added their expert perspective to a difficult “book birthing”
process; and to my publisher, Clayton
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