The Mother I Carry: A Memoir of Healing from Emotional Abuse [Paperback]

Wisechild (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (September 30, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878067389
• ISBN-13: 978-1878067388
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #288,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mother I Carry, July 30, 2000

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This review is from: The Mother I Carry: A Memoir of Healing from Emotional Abuse (Paperback)

Once again Louise's articulation has captured my feelings and put them into words. Her insights into growing up with a mother who isn't on your side are painful but healing to hear. I see a pattern between these self loathing mothers and their connection to being the victims of incest long buried but still festering. I loved seeing her progression as she healed and calmed the voices of her past and present. Both of her books have changed my life in a positive and empowering way.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read and re read!!!, February 13, 2002

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Safirewolf (PNW) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Mother I Carry: A Memoir of Healing from Emotional Abuse (Paperback)

The Mother I Carry reads very well! Louise Wisechild is a gifted story teller, in her poignant autobiography of surviving incredible emotional abuse at the hands of her chronically narcissistic mother.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand how our childhood relationships affect our adult life; the emotionally crippling "messages" we receive as children of abusers; how these messages are internalized; what we try to do to counterbalance them [survive]; and how effectively a creative child can be in the face of overwhelming abuse; and how and what we can do to heal our wounded selves so we can function with conscious awareness and true connection in our adult world.

Louise uses the concept of "inner selves" to illustrate how under the incredible stress of emotional [and sexual...see her other book "the Obsidian Mirror, written before this one] abuse, strong emotions [especially conflicting ones] have to be compartmentalized, into smaller individual "packages" in order for a child to survive the belief that death is the only alternative.

This is a wonderful affirmation for pluralized individuals anywhere on the continuum between differentiation and dissociation, be it full MPD/DID or Mid -continuum [DDNOS]. There is no debate over integration/non; in fact no mention of MPD/DID, just pure and total acceptance of her method of dealing with the abuse she suffered, and the restructuring of her responses to triggers, in order to move forward in a healthy happy life.

Read and re-read...any one who cares about maintaining interaction with the world in which they currently live will benefit from this book.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Painful story but very helpful., September 5, 1999

By 

Angela "ABrinskele" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Mother I Carry: A Memoir of Healing from Emotional Abuse (Paperback)

When you grow up thinking youre the only one who had a crazy abusive mother who made you take care of them, you are very grateful for authors like this one. Fascinating book with some good insight.