Women in Marital Conflict: A Casework Study

This concise book, with its detailed analysis of women with marital difficulties, is thought provoking for all workers whose professional routine brings to them problems of this nature. A foreknowledge of freudian psychology is assumed, although Miss Hollis provides clarification of her thinking as she presents her points.

The factors contributing to marital conflict are divided into intrinsic and extrinsic contributing causes. Into the former classification fall dependency problems, masochistic needs, unsolved parental ties and the rejection of femininity. Criteria for determining the presence of these factors in the 100 case records on which the study is based and recommendations for handling them are included. Various extrinsic circumstances such as economic pressure, interfering relatives and cultural differences are evaluated. The orientation of sex problems to other marital difficulties is explored and the conclusion reached that they are usually secondary. Miss Hollis draws on a wealth of illustrative material from the