120 Book Reviews
Segal, et al, presents the effects of psychological disability on social network,s
whilst Hatfield (1997) discusses tension brought about in the family as a result of
mental illness. The writers call for professional intervention to these problems.
Whilst Lightman presents suitable methods of social planning and community
housing to assist individuals discharged from psychiatric institutions, Ronel
suggests how self-help programmes can assist drug-ctependent individuals to live
independently.
The articles in the book have been designed on a manner that helps social
workers understand where they fit into psychiatry as a discipline. It is certain to
assist them in gaining confidence in exploring this area which docs not normally
feature as a priority in traditional social work. The articles also help student social
workers and society to appreciate how social work interventive measures can
alleviate problems encountered by the mentally ill. The information captured in the
articles is sure to build trust and good relationships between medical and social
work personnel.
Reviewed by Violet Matimba-Masuku, Lecturer, School of Social Work, Harare.
Cutting the Gordian Knot. The Benefits of Girls' Education in Sub-Saharan
Africa, Ann Cotton & Richard Synge (eds), 25 Wordsworth Grove, Cambridge
CB3 9HH, UK, ISBN: 0-9532907-0-0, Copies available from CamFed at£15 (plus
postage & packaging)
The need for sustained community-based action to reverse the high rate at which
girls in sub-Saharan Africa drop out from school is underlined in a new book just
published by the Cambridge Female Education Trust (CamFed) in association with
the African Studies Centre, University of Cambridge. A compilation of papers
presented to CamFed Seminars in Cambridge, Harare and Accra, the book is an
important contribution on the widening inlCrnational debate on girls' education.
Clare Short, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, applauds
the editors' emphasis on the need for study of the problem to shift towards finding
real solutions. In the book's Foreword, Ms Short calls for "approaches and
strategies which are both imaginative and realistic," saying that women and girls
who fail to receive an education "are unable to d«velop their full talent and are
locked into a position of powerlessness."
The book, Cutting the Gordian Knot. The Benefits of Girls' Education in Sub-
Saharan Africa, edited by Ann Cotton and Richard Synge, analyses the reasons for
the high drop-out rate of girls throughout sub-Saharan Africa and examines the
strategies being formulated by governments, international agencies and nongovernmental
organisations to encourage more girls to stay at school.
Book Reviews 121
The contributors, who include educationalists and government officials, enumerate
a wide range of obstacles to girls' chances of receiving an education,
including parents' inability to pay, a shortage of schools and teachers, the long
distances that children often have to travel to school, a gender bias in favour of
boys, a perception that boys have beUer job opportunities than girls, pressure for
early marriage of girls, or the risks of sexual harassment and pregnancy. The
common ingredient, say the editors, is a context of persistent poverty. The focus
of action, they add, has to be at the community level, through partnerships between
all those who are committed to spreading the benefits of education.
The importance that African governments are beginning to place on redressing
gender imbalances in their educational systems is underlined by the contribution
of ministers and government officials from Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia
and Zimbabwe.
Educating girls, say Ann Cotton and Richard Synge, is "an investment in better
standards of living in thefuture, with multiplier effects in terms of health, nutrition,
hygiene, smaller families and women's improved social status. Equally, the
process of family and community decision-making about girls' education can
become part and parcel of the removal of thefamily's and community's own social,
economic and even political barriers to progress."
- Editor. Journal of Social Development in Africa
Tales from Family Therapy - Life Changing Clinical Experiences (1997)
eds Frank N Thomas, Thorana S Nelson, The Haworth Press, New York, London,
ISBN: 0-7890-0065-2 (h/b); 0-7890-0450-X (p/b), 304 pp inc index, Price:
US$49.95 (hlb); US$24.95 (p/b).
Book reviewers can get to keep the book reviewed, but although I usually still try
to avoid the onerous task of reviewing a book, this one was just too good to miss!
If, like me, you find most academic books dry and difficult and would rather read
a novel given the choice, then this one is for you. I could hardly put it downinnumerable
(53 in fact) short and interesting accounts by therapists of cases which
had moved and changed them in some way. I think both beginners and experienced
therapists could learn more about the actual practice of family therapy and being
a therapist through this than by almost any other means.
The book has sections which include Therapy with Families, Couples, Children,
Medical Issues, Humour and just Remarkable Clients generally. Difficult Cases,
Use of Self, Collaboration and Supervision are some of the other areas addressed.
Although most cases are American (after all what else do you expect from
Americans?), there are a few from Australia, Norway, India, Canada and New