The Wise Wound

by Peter Redgrove, Penelope Shuttle, Margaret Drabble

Book Overview

This groundbreaking study of the facts, fantasies and taboos surrounding menstruation has helped bring about a profound shift in attitudes towards a natural phenomenon that has been reviled and denigrated over the centuries. Thoroughly researched yet highly readable, combining psychology, anthropology and poetry, the authors illustrate their theories using examples ranging from the Bible to such modern horrors as vampire movies and cult film The Exorcist...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553349066
• ISBN13: 9780553349061
• Release Date: June 1990
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 421 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Very informative information.

For anyone who is looking to learn more about her body

Academic Love

Although this is a great book. It was a little more academic than I typically like to read. Filled with great information on the societal changes of the view of women's bleeding, the academic approach left me a little bored, but this is just my reading preference. If you are looking for a great book about mensturation, how to love your body, in a no nonsence, textbook way, this book is for you.

A must read

This book is one of the books I recommend to anyone trying to understand more about modern culture and menstruation. Shuttle and Redgrove do a very decent job exploring myth, biology, and psychology to present the menstrual process as a holistic experience. The book is a hefty read which can at times be tough to follow, but for a beginning look at sociology and menstruation it really can't be beat. There are reasons I didn't rate this book as 5 stars. The authors fall back on Jungian psychology for almost all of their assumptions. I find Jungian methods to be inherently flawed in their assumptions, that the active portions of the psyche are inherently male, and the passive portions are inherently female. The authors also rely on free association with myth and popular culture to tie the book together, diminishing the book's usefulness as a basis for a scholarly discussion on the culture towards menstruation. In other words, a good place to start looking, but if you're serious about researching the phenomenon, keep reading other books after this one.

A different perspective

This book changed the way I see my femininity for ever. I think everyone should read it.

PMS turned inside out

Pre-menstrual syndrome, with all its characteristics of cramps, pain, depression and headaches is nothing more than male programming or 'Howlback' according to the WW. Women have been conditionned to perceive the bleed as just a biological inconvenience which can be modified or 'treated' with drugs or ignored completely. Shuttled and Redgrove theorize the motivation behind this pattern and deconstruct it using examples from ancient cultures and horror film imagery of the menstruating female. But the text covers much more than PMS; in a way, the latent significance of menstruation has been turned 'outside- in', concealed from and downgraded by modern society and suppressed. The WW demonstrates how the gifts of the bleed can be turned back inside (from the unconscious) out (to consciousness), that is back to the right and Natural place in the importance of our femality. If you are looking for advice on how diet can help with PMS dont bother with this book. If you want to change the 'curse' into a very wise wound indeed, the you MUST read it. My wisebleed is now my 'call of the wild' and PMS is His-story !

Body Wisdom

I am disappointed to discover that this book is now out of print. It has been an infinitely valuable resource to me as I have searched through the traditions of medicine, mythology, religion, and psychology to discover the mysteries of feminine wisdom. My own copy, dog-eared by years of referencing as I work with women struggling to get in touch with their own wisdom, is a treasure in my library.