Forced to Be Family
A Guide for Living with Sinister Sisters, Drama Mamas, and Infuriating In-Laws
Published on 1. September 2007
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-470-04999-0 (ISBN)
Description
Understanding and dealing with relational aggression among female family members Cheryl Dellasega's Mean Girls Grown Up broke new ground with its in-depth examination of bullying behavior in adult women. Now Dellasega goes one step further to examine the even harsher reality of female family feuds sisters who sabotage, ex-wives who wage subtle warfare, and other family situations where women emotionally wound each other. Using clinical insights and real-life stories, Dr. Dellasega explains why these female family antagonisms have a special power to hurt and offers practical strategies to help readers restore relationships and reclaim their lives. Cheryl Dellasega, PhD (Hershey, PA) is a professor in the College of Medicine and Department of Humanities and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of Mean Girls Grown Up (see below) as well as two other books, Surviving Ophelia (0-345-45538-X) and Girl Wars (0-7432-4987-9).
Reviews / Votes
Relationship counselor Dellasega adds to her long list of self-help books dealing with mean and troubled women (Surviving Ophelia, Girl Wars,Mean Girls Grown Up). Chock-full of real-life, victim-oriented stories by complaining women, Dellasega's latest is based on the idea that no one can hurt a woman more than a member of her own family, especially if the aggressor is female. Dellasega, a professor in the College of Medicine and in the department of humanities and women's studies at Penn State, offers depressing tales of women betraying their sisters and mothers-in-law humiliating their sons' wives. No longer a symptom of what used to be called a "dysfunctional family," Dellasega labels this unrest "Relative Relational Aggression" or "Relative RA." By the end, one can't help but long for the sensible advice of the late Ann Landers. Once, when someone wrote in to her asking what to do when a family member was rude to you, Landers told her to simply say, "Excuse me?" But then where's the drama in that? (Oct.) (Publishers Weekly, August 20, 2007)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chichester
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Paper over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-470-04999-0 (9780470049990)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Cheryl Dellasega, PhD, is a professor in the department of humanities at the College of Medicine and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of Mean Girls Grown Up and four other books: Surviving Ophelia, Girl Wars, the award-winning The Starving Family, and Bloggrls, a fiction series for girls.
Content
Acknowledgements. Introduction. PART ONE: FEMALES IN THE FAMILY WAY. 1: A Tale of Two Sisters. 2: The Kitchen Wars: Relational Aggression between Female Relatives. 3: The Female Family Clique. 4: Hardwired to Care: The Kin-Keepers. 5: Men Are Like Bricks, Women Are Like Mortar. 6: Competition: A Help or Hurt? 7: How True, and for Who? 8: Friend vs. Female Family Feuds. PART TWO: MOTHERS, SISTERS, AND DAUGHTERS. 9: Motherhood Revisited. 10: Distressing Daughters. 11: Sweetly Sinister Sisters. PART THREE: IN LAWS AND OTHERS. 12: Mothers and Sisters, By Law. 13: Daughtering, The In-Law Way. PART FOUR: NOT QUITE FAMILY, DEFINITELY RA. 14: Family, More or Less: Extended, Extra, or Estranged. 15: Carebearing and Carewearing. 16: Really Forced to be Family: Divorced. PART FIVE: CONNECTED, CARING, OR COPING. 17: The Female Family Maintenance Plan. 18: The Transformation Treatment Plan. 19: A Time to Act. 20: Special Strategies for Mother or Sister RA. 21: Special Strategies for In-Laws or Exes. 22: Relative RA: What a Therapist Has to Say. 23: Turning Relative Aggression into Relational Affection. References. Index.