The Sister Knot Why We Fight Why We Re Jealous And Why We Ll Love Each Other No Matter What

“The best book on sisters, very important and beautifully written.”—Carol Gilligan, author of In a Different Voice This “substantial contribution to the literature on sibling relationships” (Library Journal) explores the intricacy, friction, and love in bonds between sisters. Relationships between women are often freighted with a rocky mix of emotions—devotion and disregard, affection and loathing, admiration and envy—leading to anguish and confusion on the playground, in the home, and in the boardroom. Negotiating her layered feelings toward a sister shapes a woman’s psychology as forcefully as do her relationships with her parents. Drawing on compelling interviews and new research, Terri Apter considers the many aspects of the sister relationship from birth through adulthood. The need to fight to differentiate oneself from a sister, as well the protectiveness one feels for that same person, is explained by reference to extensive psychological and biological evidence.

Collected from her highly successful column in the Times - in which she seeks expert opinion to back up her own experience, Ask your Father provides succinct, on-the-button advice to every question from a child you could possibly have the misfortune to be faced with. This will make you laugh all the way to the school gates.

In Fratriarchy, Juliet Mitchell expands her ground-breaking theories on the sibling trauma and the Law of the Mother. Writing as a psychoanalytic practitioner, she shows what happens from the ground up when we use feminist questions to probe the psycho-social world and its lateral relations. In this pivotal text, Mitchell argues that the mother’s prohibition of her toddler attacking a new or expected sibling is a rite of passage from infancy to childhood: this is a foundational force structuring our later lateral relationships and social practices. Throughout the volume, Mitchell chooses the term 'Fratriarchy' to show that, as well as the up-down axis of fathers and sons, there is also the side-to-side interaction of sisters and brothers and their social heirs. Making use both critically and affirmatively of Freud, Klein, Winnicott, Bion, Pontalis and others, Fratriarchy indicates how the collective social world matches the individual family world examined by established psychoanalysis. Decades on from Mitchell’s work on psychoanalysis and feminism which argued that feminism needed psychoanalysis to understand the position of women, Fratriarchy now asks psychoanalysis to take on board the developing practices and theories of global feminism. This volume will be essential reading for analysts, psychotherapists, psychologists and anyone who wants to re-think the ubiquity of unconscious processes. It will also interest students and teachers of social theory, psychoanalysis, group analysis, gender studies and feminism.

In the vein of Adult Children of Alcoholics comes the first book geared specifically to the siblings of alcoholics. Patricia Olsen, sister of two alcoholic brothers, shares her personal experiences along with interviews with other sober siblings, while Petros Levounis, M.D., the director of The Addiction Institute of New York and chief of addiction psychology at St. Luke's and Roosevelt Hospitals in New York City, offers expert advice. Whether the alcoholic is in recovery or relapsed, in AA or therapy, Sober Siblings helps brothers and sisters gain greater awareness of their own situation, offering practical wisdom and suggestions on: feelings of shame, frustration, hopelessness, and anger; the difference between helping and enabling; setting boundaries; the nature of alcoholism; coaddictions; and how to help your sibling while not losing yourself.

It’s a fact: twins experience life differently than singleton children. They’re compared to each other in everything from athletics to academics. They encounter unique social issues (what happens when one child is invited to a social outing while her twin is not?). They can even have difficulty forming deep relationships outside of the twinship. Yet no book effectively helps parents navigate these unique emotional challenges—until now. In the first book written on the emotional needs of twins, Twinsight: How to Raise Emotionally Healthy Twins bypasses the usual discussions on how to pay for two tuitions (a conundrum, to be sure!) and instead tackles deeper questions: How do you help twins feel like individuals? Should they be expected to be each other’s caretaker? How can a parent avoid comparing? How can you encourage relationships outside the twinship? and more! Drawing on over eighty interviews with adult twins and their non-twin siblings, as well as expert insights from educators and psychologists and exhaustive research, author Dara Lovitz offers parents a definitive roadmap to raising emotionally healthy twins now and into the future.

This edited volume presents unique insights on sibling relationships in adulthood in the early 21st century, focusing on three themes: relations beyond childhood and school years; factors shaping social support provision between siblings; and changes in family life and how these impact sibling relations. Comprised of chapters from distinguished international family scholars, this book examines sibling dynamics across age, race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, geography, and social environments. It answers important questions such as, to what extent do siblings support each other at different stages of the life cycle? How do cultural practices and family obligations impact on sibling support? How does sibling support differ when looking at surrogates, migrant families, polygamous families, and siblings with disabilities? These contributions expand and contribute greatly to the field of sibling studies and will be of interest to all students and scholars studying and researching family relationships.

Breaking new ground in family psychology, an exploration of the intricacy, friction, and love in the bonds between in-laws. When we marry, we believe the bond is between only two individuals. Few of us realize the power that inlaws will exert over our lives. But the in-laws we acquire when we marry affect our quality of life—our marriage, family, personal comfort, and long-term well-being—for better or worse. What Do You Want From Me? takes a fresh look at the age-old problem of managing conflict with in-laws, offering practical help for dealing with problems that are both immediate (“How do I deal with my in-laws now?”) and strategic (“How can I change the nature of my in-laws’ demands?”). Terri Apter, a psychologist whose books on family dynamics have received international acclaim, draws on nearly two decades of psychological research to pinpoint the sources of tension between in-laws and explore the ways in which we can build healthy relationships with the in-laws in our lives.