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

Susan Nathiel

ISBN: 0-275-99042-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-99042-8

DOI:

224 pages

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 3/30/2007

List Price: $49.95 (UK Sterling Price: £34.95)

Availability:

Media Type: Hardcover

Also Available: Ebook

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: Women's Psychology

Reviews:

Any book that helps us to understand the experiences of the mentally ill and their families is welcome, and Nathiel's is no exception. She has produced a useful study which is well written with clearly presented information that is accessible to mental health practitioners as well as those with mental health problems, their families and other caregivers.
—Metapsychology Online Reviews July 14, 2008
[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

Description: June was 9 years old when she came home from school and her schizophrenic mother met her at the door, angrily demanding to know, Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my house? Tess's mother would wait outside church, then scream at family friends as they emerged, accusing them of spying and plotting to kill her. Five-year-old Tess and her 7-year-old brother would cry and beg their mother to take them home as onlookers stared. These are just two of the stories among dozens gathered for this book. The children, now adults, grew up with mentally ill mothers at a time when mental illness was even more stigmatizing than it is today. They are what Nathiel calls the daughters of madness, and their young lives were lived on shaky ground. Telling someone that there's mental illness in her family, and watching the reaction is not for the faint-hearted, the therapist says, quoting another's research. Nathiel adds, Telling them it is your mother who's mentally ill certainly ups the ante. A veteran therapist with 35 years experience, Nathiel takes us into this traumatic world—each of her chanpters covering a major developmental period for the daughter of a mentally ill mother—and then explains how these now-adult daughters faced and coped with their mothers' illness.

While the stories of these daughters are central to the book, Nathiel also offers her professional insights into exactly how maternal impairment affects infants, children, and adolescents. Women, significantly more than men, are often diagnosed with serious mental illness after they become parents. So what effect does a mentally ill mother have on a growing child, teenager or adult daughter, who looks to her not only for the deepest and most abiding love, but also a sense of what the world is all about? Nathiel also makes accessible the latest research on interpersonal neurobiology, attachment, and the way a child's brain and mind develop in the contest of that relationship.

About the Author: Susan Nathiel is a psychotherapist treating individuals, couples and families. She has been in practice for more than 30 years, and has a special interest in helping families deal with problems. Nathiel is a Founding Member of the Connecticut Guild of Psychotherapists and Founding Member of the Center for Illness in Families.

LCC Class: RC439

PDF Catalogs:
Psychology Catalog 2008.pdf	Praeger Health and Wellness Spring 2008.pdf


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