The Woman who gave Birth to her Mother – Kim Chernin

Description

How could Hélène survive a childhood devoted to worshipping a mother who was ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’? How did competent, energetic and successful Brett – sure she would make a better mother than her mother had ever been to her – cope with terrible postnatal depression?

How indeed does any daughter end the cycle of blaming and forgiving; idealizing and escaping; imitating (or trying desperately not to imitate) her mother? This thought-provoking book offers a new paradigm for women’s development as mature, creative and free adults.

Kim Chernin explores the stages Of change through which women travel in thinking v about their mothers, from idealization of the past and revising it; blaming the mother and forgiving her, letting go of her and, ultimately, giving birth to a new self.

Illuminating her central theme with stories from her patients, as well as her own family and friends, Chernin shows how this crucial transition allows women to free themselves and open the door to autonomy and achievement.