Reviving Ophelia

Pipher writes with a poetic style that evokes emotion and relates the information and arguments with genuine concern. She uses metaphors, such as comparing “the complexity and intensity of adolescence” (69) to the borders between different landscapes. She is both deeply emotionally invested in the topic of adolescent girls’ mental health and using a wide variety of approaches to explain and express the magnitude of the issues girls are facing and have historically faced. She contextualizes her arguments with real-life accounts provided by girls she has treated and girls who participated in focus groups wherein they were asked questions and discussed the cultural and personal issues they face. Pipher further explains the challenges of adolescence by comparing them to toddlerhood. In both periods, a child is separating from their parents—first physically as a toddler, then emotionally and intellectually as a teenager. She also consistently draws connections between the past and present, emphasizing that most of the issues adolescent girls have faced for decades are still prevalent in society today. Through each chapter, Pipher also returns to her assertion that parents appear to be attempting to protect their daughters against the pressures of cultural indoctrination rather than perpetuate those pressures.

Pipher explains her theory of deep structure and surface structure: The surface structure is behaviors that either have little meaning or contradict the true meaning of the deep structure—inner thoughts, identity, and one’s place in the world. In adolescence, these two structures become conflated and confused for many girls, or worse, they succumb purely to surface structure behaviors and lose their sense of self. Pipher then categorizes the adolescent aspects of the self, connecting each of these aspects to create a picture of everything that girls deal with as they grow from a child into an adult. Through her explanation of the emotional selves of adolescent girls, Pipher makes it clear that acknowledging and connecting with one’s emotions is one of the most important factors in successfully fielding the battles of youth. The emotional fluctuations adolescent girls experience can be misleading and result in impulsive behavior. Pipher insists that girls must be conscious of their thoughts and be willing to examine them honestly. Furthermore, the way girls relate to their parents both affects and is affected by their sense of self and “girls who [hold] onto their true selves [are] more likely to keep their relationship with their families alive” (80). Peer relationships can have positive and negative effects on adolescent girls, depending on how much of themselves they give up to be accepted. In adolescence, there is a massive spark of activism, idealism, and questioning that girls experience. Pipher contextualizes this need for justice with history, asserting that the historical oppression of women and girls leads them to want to help the vulnerable, to act against injustice, and to protect those who cannot protect themselves.