Psychoanalytic and Psychotherapeutic Perspectives on Stepfamilies and Stepparenting

Psychoanalytic and Psychotherapeutic Perspectives on Step-families and Step-parenting looks at the role step-parents can play in the psychic development of children. Step-parenting requires enormous confidence and resilience that stretches into a territory of human emotions and conflict that can make marriage seem easy. Prophecy Coles' concern has been that we are witnessing a new kinship system and our psychological thinking has not kept up with the emotional effect that stepparents are having upon the next generation.

Prophecy Coles is a retired psychotherapist. In all she has written she has been pursuing the question as to whether our childhood relationships, beyond those with our parents, such as those with siblings, nannies, wet nurses, grandparents, ancestors, and now our stepparents, can leave a lasting impression that affects the way we relate to others in the world. Her publications include In The Importance of Sibling Relationships in Psychoanalysis. (2003). Sibling Relationships (2006). The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past (2011) and The Shadow of Second Mother (2015).

Introduction; 1 The Stepmother in our Fairy Stories 2 The Fairy Story Stepfather; Where is He? 3 The Strangely Shaped Footprint of Women 4 The Psychic Moorings of a Stepchild 5 No Longer The Fairy Tale Stepmother 6 Psychoanalytic Theory and Stepparents 7 Is Step-parenting All in the Mind? 8 The New Reality? 9 Are we living in a 'me' society?