Main description:

The New Motherhoods: Patterns of Early Child Care in Contemporary Culture offers innovative perspectives in psychotherapy that accommodate emerging pathways to parenthood, changing roles of mothers, and evolving patterns of family structure. Moms come in all shapes and sizes, and psychoanalytic developmental theory could be modified to better embrace modern mothers and today's childcare practices. In this volume, distinguished clinical psychologists and psychoanalysts offer divergent conceptual perspectives on what shapes contemporary mothering, including the increasing number of single mothers in our society, the additional challenges faced by immigrating mothers, how technology affects the parent-child relationship, and gender identity in families today. Incorporating the most current research along with engaging clinical vignettes, The New Motherhoods provides mental health professionals with an invaluable collection of insights into modern motherhood and its essential role in the care and healthy development of children.

Contents:

1. The Impact of Contemporary Culture on Maternal Functions: An Overview / Salman Akhtar, MD

2. The Changing Morphology of Parenthood - Its Implications for Separation-Individuation Theory / Henri Parens, MD

3. Helicopter Parents, Tiger Parents and Cell Phones / Susan Coates, PhD

4. Single Mothers and Women's Autonomy / Mary Kay O'Neil, PhD

5. Sole-Support Mothers and Autonomy from the Child's Perspective / S. Ami Berkowitz, MEd

6. Mothers' Experiences in Creating an Emotional Connection with their Adopted Children: A Qualitative Study / Mary Winzinger, PhD, April Fallon, PhD, and Virginia Brabender, PhD

7. Adoptive Mothers Growing up With Their Children: Reflections on a Long Term Group for Adoptive Mothers / Elaine Frank, LCSW

8. Immigrant Mothers / Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, PhD, and Milena Claudius, MA

9. Mothers without Motherlands / Yaprak Egilmez Harrison, MD, PhD

10. Modern Families: Reflections on Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, and Motherhood / Deborah F. Glazer, PhD

11. Complex Gender Identifications, Regulatory Anxiety, and Grieving: Reflections on Lesbian Motherhood / John L. Frank, MD

12. Modern Motherhood, Modern Mothering, and New Family Constellations: A Concluding Commentary / Mali Mann, MD