With a Woman's Voice: A Writer's Struggle for Emotional Freedom
(eBook)

Having written a bestselling book at 22, survived a harrowing battle with anorexia nervosa, and pursued a successful career as a clinical psychologist, Lucy Daniels has led a remarkable life. In With a Woman's Voice: A Writer's Struggle for Emotional Freedom, her first book in 40 years, Daniels shares the experience of overcoming emotional hardships and gaining valuable insights from them, through psychoanalysis, that has enabled her to help others. With a Woman's Voice is Daniels' memoir of the struggles she faces as a writer and a doctor of psychology, struggles that began at a very young age and continued long after the success of her two novels. As the child of a wealthy newspaper family, Daniels was emotionally deprived by her demanding parents and plagued by her own feelings of inadequacy and helplessness. Sent to a mental hospital for treatment of her anorexia, she spent years enduring brutal regimens of electroshock therapy, insulin injections, and force-feedings. It was during this time that she wrote Caleb, My Son. Caleb, My Son became a national bestseller, earning accolades for its portrayal of racial and generational conflict in the South of the 50s. Her second book, High on a Hill, was a fictional account of the time she spent in the hospital. Her novels won her a Guggenheim fellowship and extensive praise. After this early success, Daniels succumbed to writer's block that lasted several decades. She tells in her memoir of her decision to examine and resolve her problems, leading her to seek psychoanalytic treatment while pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology. After years of examining her difficulties and learning how they could be treated, she created a foundation that helps artists overcome emotional disorders and gain creative insight from both self-examination and psychotherapy. With a Woman's Voice recalls these achievements, and the difficult years that led up to them, with insight, humor, and wisdom. Daniels provides a moving account of