Mother, Madonna, Whore: The Idealization and Denigration of Motherhood

Estela V. Welldon

Karnac, Dec 1, 1992 - Family & Relationships - 179 pages

To Freud, female sexuality remained something of a mystery: a riddle and a dark continent. He urged his female colleagues to enlighten him. Many have since done so - and this book is a most vivid and illuminating contribution to the field. The author explores why the quality of their bodies is fundamental to women's psychology; how this may lead to self-mutilation; and how such perverse behavior may also be aimed at objects which women see as their own creations, specifically, their babies. The potential causes and consequences of these conditions, including maternal and paternal incest and its frequent aftermath, prostitution, are also discussed.

About the author

Estela V. Welldon is an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at Tavistock and Portman NHS Clinics. She is the Founder and the Honorary Life President of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy. In 1997, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Science by Oxford Brookes University. Welldon works privately as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and organizational consultant. She is a Member of the British Association for Psychotherapy, the British Psychoanalytic Council, the Institute of Group Analysis, the American Group Psychotherapy Association and the International Association for Group Psychotherapy. She is the author of Mother, Madonna, Whore: The Idealization and Denigration of Motherhood (1988) and Sadomasochism (2002) and is the main editor of A Practical Guide to Forensic Psychotherapy (1997).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Mother, Madonna, Whore: The Idealization and Denigration of Motherhood
• Author: Estela V. Welldon
• Edition: reprint, revised
• Publisher: Karnac, 1992
• ISBN: 1855753413, 9781855753419
• Length: 179 pages
• Subjects: Family & Relationships / Abuse / General; Psychology / Human Sexuality; Psychology / Psychopathology / General