Mother Was a Psychopath

Female psychopaths are rarely diagnosed. If they have children, they tend to exert total control, violently and manipulatively, although outside the family they appear normal. Spouses rarely dare to confront a partner who turns demonic if questioned. She fights until her false accusations are accepted. In this insightful and highly unusual autoethnographic study, the author, a qualified and licenced psychologist, explores her own and her mother’s unique story, and the psycho-social heritage from previous generations. The author explains the dissociative quality of the mother-daughter relation: one idealised; one terrorising. She illustrates how her brother carried the symptoms: anxious, obsessive-compulsive, and overprotected. His records from child psychiatry provide a fascinating documentation of the professional's perspective of the family. The father was the official root of any problem; his alcoholism was the mother's favourite cover. The author was unaware of her own deep wounds, until she herself became a wife and mother. Only then, through deep analytical psychotherapy, could she discover and experience trust. The book is unique and fills a gap in the literature, in addressing the dynamics of female domestic violence, from a grown-up daughter’s psychological perspective. The author’s way of coping with later challenges in her adult life is inspiring and instructive in discussing how, for example, she keeps her boundaries in communication with her invading mother. It is important reading for students, professionals and researchers in education, social work, child and family support, psychiatry and psychotherapy, primary care, and addiction clinics. A previous version of this title was published in Swedish, in 2022.