Soon after publication in 1985, The Myth of Women's Masochism became one of the most influential works in women's psychology. Paula Caplan rejects the accepted wisdom that women enjoy pain and abuse, and argues that, on the contrary, much of the pain women endure is to avoid further, or worse, treatment. Women stay with abusive husbands in order, for instance, to protect themselves and their children from the greater suffering of poverty. She makes...