The Shadow of the Second Mother: Nurses and nannies in theories of infant development [Paperback]

Dedication. Acknowledgements. Introduction. A Brief History of the Wet Nurse of the Privileged.The Foundling and the Wet Nurse. The Second Mother. The Wet Nurse in Literature and Biography. Freud and Klein. The Nanny. Trauma, Attachment and Melancholia, Natural Bonds.

Prophecy Coles: The Shadow of the Second Mother : Nurses and nannies in theories of infant development.

Through rescuing the second mother from near oblivion and by pointing to the potential double rupture of attachment and subsequent devastating emotional harm, Coles has done a great service to all those promoting good enough parenting.  Simon Partridge, Attachment New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis Journal

A fascinating illustration of traumatogenic processes including the protective defenses of encapsulation and social-psychic retreat, this subtle, intelligent and highly accessible study of the wet nurse, the nanny and the maid helps us understand the hidden foundling within each of us, especially mental health professionals in general and perhaps old-fashioned psychoanalysts in particular. Through tracing the emergence of the relational perspective from the fecund field of attachment which was originally a matter of dissident and dissonant voices within psychoanalysis, group analysis and sociology, the social unconscious is shown to be entirely relevant to our understanding of loss and melancholia in the deepest layers and kernels of our unconscious life.  Earl Hopper Ph.D

Prophecy Coles brings delegated or substitute parents out from obscurity into the limelight. She explores the many contradictions of this role, asking questions such as: Can love really be blCP