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Mothering Without a Map: The Search for the Good Mother Within

by Kathryn Black

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Motherhood, inherited absence, and finding other models of care

$23.15 USD
$36.18 USD $23.15 USD
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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Motherhood, inherited absence, and finding other models of care

Kathryn Black examines the question of how women raised by mothers who were absent, emotionally unavailable, distracted, depressed, or otherwise unable to provide steady care approach motherhood themselves. Framed around the idea that early maternal loss or limitation need not determine the next generation, the book gathers perspectives from psychiatry, psychoanalysis, social work, biology, and related fields. It considers how inherited wounds can be recognized alongside the practical and emotional work of creating security and connection for one’s own children. Black also situates the subject in relation to her own experience of losing her mother early in life.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Mothers reflecting on how their own upbringing shapes parenting
  • Readers interested in intergenerational family patterns
  • Those seeking a cross-disciplinary discussion of maternal care and emotional inheritance

Themes

MotherhoodIntergenerational traumaMaternal absenceHealingFamily relationships

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Every woman longs to be a good mother. But what about those women who grew up "undermothered"--whose own mothers were well-meaning but unavailable, absent, distracted, or depressed? How are they to become the good mothers they aspire to be?

In this beautifully articulate book, Kathryn Black, whose own mother's early death inspired her award-winning In the Shadow of Polio, offers affirming news: One doesn't have to have had a good mother to become one. Probing for answers from experts in psychiatry and psychoanalysis, social work, biology, and other disciplines, Black reveals that there are other paths to discovering the good mother within. This moving and powerful book shows how "wounded daughters" can become "healing mothers" who give their own children a legacy of security, happiness, and love.

On the web: http: //www.motheringwithoutamap.com

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