My Mother/My Self: The Daughter's Search for Identity

This pioneering book by the author of Women on Top plays a major role in our understanding of the powerful influence the mother/daughter bond has on a woman's identity, her relationships with men, and her self-esteem. Through candid self-disclosure and hundreds of interviews, Nancy Friday investigates this feminine legacy and reveals the conflicting feelings of anger, hate, and love that daughters hold for their mothers. nWhen Nancy Friday began her research for My Mother/My Self in the early 1970's no work existed that explored the unique interaction between mother and daughter. Today psychotherapists throughout the world acknowledge that if women are to be able to love without possessing, to find work that fulfills them, and to discover their full sexuality, they must first acknowledge their identity as separate from their mother's. Nancy Friday's book played a major role in that acceptance. The greatest gift a good mother can give remains unquestioning love planted deep in the first year of life, so deep and anassailable that the tiny child grown to womanhood is never held back by the fear of losing that love, no matter what her own choice in love, sexuality, or work may be. nThrough candid self-disclosure and hundreds of interviews, Friday investigates a generational legacy and reveals the conflicting feelings of anger, hate, and love the daughter's hold for their mothers-and why they so often become that mother themselves.n