Description
The first love in our lives is our mother. Recognizing her face, her voice, the meaning of her moods, and her facial expressions is a very powerful to survival. Dr. Christine Ann Lawson vividly describes how mothers who suffer from borderline personality disorder produce children who may flounder in life at the same time as adults, futilely struggling to achieve the safety of a parental harbor, unable to recognize that their borderline parent lacks a pier, or even a discernible shore.
Four character profiles describe different symptom clusters that come with the waif mother, the hermit mother, the queen mother, and the witch. Children of borderlines are at risk for developing this complex and devastating personality disorder themselves. Dr. Lawson’s recommendations for prevention include empathic understanding of the borderline mother and early intervention with her children to ground them actually and counteract the continuously dangerous effects of living with a “make-imagine” mother.
Some readers may recognize their mothers in addition to themselves in this book. They’re going to also find specific suggestions for creating healthier relationships. Addressing the adult children of borderlines and the therapists who work with them, Dr. Lawson shows how to take care of the waif without rescuing her, to attend to the hermit without feeding her fear, to love the queen without becoming her subject, and to live with the witch without becoming her victim.
A Jason Aronson Book
Waif mother
hermit mother
Witch mother
Queen Mother
borderline personality disorders in mothers