Every woman has a cage in her heart named "should," imprisoning herself while also monitoring all other women.

The Girl: "I should be dignified and gentle, I shouldn't speak too loudly or act too crudely..."

The Wife: "It’s only right that I rush home after work to cook for my husband; it is a wife’s duty. Even though I’m so tired..."

The Mother: "I am nearly collapsing from the exhaustion of balancing work and childcare, but this is what a mother should do."

As a woman, these examples are surely familiar to you. Or perhaps at this very moment, you are being tormented and gnawed at by a "habitual guilt." No one is forcing these "shoulds" upon you, yet if you fail to meet them, you are often overcome with self-reproach and anxiety.

Psychologist Chou writes this book from her own perspective as a woman. Her words are wise and powerful, yet as you read, they bleed with a certain pain—because we have all been shaped and distorted in this way time and time again. Through her insights, we come to understand why women so often make things difficult for one another, why the "oppressed" become the "oppressors," why we repeatedly play out life scripts of loving the wrong people, and why there is so much control and harm in the name of love between mothers and children.

Most importantly, Psychologist Chou provides heartwarming advice and proactive methods for reclaiming your life. These tools allow us to say goodbye to endless guilt and anxiety, and to the pain of "knowing it in my head but being unable to do it." Life is short, and no one can—or should—be responsible for another person’s life.