Daughters of Madness Growing Up and Older with a Mentally Ill Mother

Subjects:

• Psychology » Psychology (General)
• Psychology » Developmental Psychology
• Psychology » Abnormal Psychology

Related Web Pages:

• Visit the Author's Website

Reviews:

• [T]here has been little written about the experience of growing up with a parent living with a mental illness....Psychotherapist Susan Nathiel's new book, Daughters of Madness: Growing Up and Older With a Mentally Ill Mother makes an important contribution to the literature by providing a qualitative description of the experiences of 18 women growing up with a mother living with mental illness....Nathiel skillfully draws from her 35 years of clinical experience in working with families in describing psychological patterns clearly and vividly. This book would be helpful for all mental health professionals and trainees to further their understanding of this experience....Daughters of Madness provides a unique, insightful, and poignant look into the challenges common to life with a parent with a mental illness. The well-organized text makes an important contribution to the literature, and the qualitative approach yields rich findings.
  —PsycCRITIQUES September 12, 2007
• Practitioner Nathiel lets her interviewees largely speak for themselves as they recount their horrific stories and the challenges they face. She notes that even though stigma has been reduced, the daughters experienced their trauma at a time when to have schizophrenia or bipolar disease in the family was socially unacceptable. She follows the effects of maternal mental illness from early childhood ("Am I bad?") to middle childhood ("Who am I?"), and from the adolescent years to young adulthood and the fear of perpetuating illness in the daughters' own families. Nathiel includes the effects on fathers and other siblings as well as areas for further research. This is strong stuff, and frequently riveting.
  —SciTech Book News June 2007

• Endorsement From Victoria Secunda,
  author, When Madness Comes Home and When You And Your Mother Can't Be Friends: This is the most thoughtful, well-researched, and deeply moving book I have ever read on the effect upon daughters of mentally ill mothers. Susan Nathiel has an uncommon understanding of children's pre-verbal mental development and the degree to which a mother's emotional absence, unpredictability, or frightening behavior can permanently shape a daughter's world view. Written with extraordinary]gracefulness and balance, Daughters of Madness will be of immeasurable comfort to families of the mentally ill, and should be required reading for every student of psychology, general medicine, and law.
• Endorsement From Joan Hedrick,
  Author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life
  Charles P. Dana Professor of History, Trinity College: This book will do an immense service for families with mentally ill parents. Beautifully organized and framed by Nathiel's compassionate analysis and guidance for change, these compelling stories of daughters whose childhood sense of self was disrupted by the mental illness of their mothers make it clear how mental illness is a family disease. The daughters' struggles are moving, painful and yet ultimately hopeful. This book will go a long way toward changing our attitudes toward mental illness in women with children.

PDF Catalogs:
Academic Library Spring 2008.pdf	Praeger Health and Wellness Spring 2008.pdf