A Mother Who Doesn't Love. A Psychotherapist's Look at the Complex Relationship Between Mother and Daughter

Elena takes pride in having become a mother and has dedicated her whole life to her daughter. Her advice is always important to her friends, but for some reason, her daughter doesn't completely agree. It's just her nature – she’s just like her father. But in childhood, she was a completely different child. Lida is a very sensitive and emotional person. But she is lucky – her daughter is always by her side. They even live on the same landing now. Lida must not get stressed: as soon as there is stress, the ambulance arrives. The daughter always worries about her and drops everything when her mother needs it. Everything in Zoe’s family depends on her. The daughter is married and is already a mother herself, but how can she be left without supervision? Something always goes wrong. And what does it even mean to ‘leave the daughter alone’? Zoe is a mother! People come and go, but the daughter is forever. Psychotherapist Marina Markatun has been observing the complex relationships between mothers and daughters in her office for over 36 years. She has come to believe that it is not enough to describe the personality and define the type of relationship. It is necessary to understand how the mother sees the world and how the daughter views the same events. 12 mothers and their adult daughters tell the story of their lives. Each is accompanied by a specialist's comment, in which the author explains the mothers' behavior and gives recommendations for resolving conflicts. All stories are based on real cases from practice. From this book, you will learn: - how the daughter mimics her mother's behavior, even when they have different views on life; - what an adult child feels when they lacked their mother’s attention in childhood; - how to make independent decisions when ‘mom knows best’; - what a family goes through when the mother suffers from alcohol or drug dependence; - how a narcissistic mother sees the world.