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The Woman Who Gave Birth to Her Mother: Tales of Women in Transformation
The Woman Who Gave Birth to Her Mother Tales of Women in Transformation Author:Kim Chernin With the "eloquence of a poet and the gifts of a born therapist" (San Francisco Chronicle) Kim Chernin offers a new paradigm for women's development as mature, creative, and free adults. "Giving birth to one's mother" is a symbolic act of self-creation that opens the door to autonomy and achievement; it is a model for breaking the pattern of the... more » endless cycles of blame and forgiveness of mothers within which many women live out their lives. Tales from Chernin's clinical practice vividly illustrate this model. One client's question, "If I tell you that a daughter is looking for me, a daughter who died when she was born, can you make sense of that without thinking I am crazy?" is the beginning of her journey. Another woman, adopted into an abusive family, embarks on an unlikely--but ultimately life-changing and successful--search for her birth-mother. Chernin's work is groundbreaking and necessary; this is a book that belongs on the shelves alongside Hope Edelman, Mary Pipher, Carol Gilligan and Mary Catherine Bateson as a major contribution to how women understand their lives.« less