Mothers Accused and Abused Addressing Complex Psychological Needs

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Angela Foster

1. Mother, madonna, whore: understanding perverse mothering: Reflections on a ground-breaking book

Estela V. Welldon

2. Caring for the mother and as well as her children

Angela Foster

3. Mothers and the law: Mythologies and stereotypes - a woman’s lot?

Helena Kennedy

　

PART TWO

The pain of relationships lived and re-lived

4. Infanticide, matricide or suicide

Carine Minne

5. Treating violent men: The significance of the mother-son relationship

Celia Taylor

6. Staff accused and abused: Managing anxiety, pain and distress in systems of care

Angela Foster

　

PART THREE

Mothers in prison

7. Transition to motherhood and becoming a child-less mother in prison

Laura Abbott

8. Therapy with a mother and baby in prison

Pamela Windham Stewart

9. Cover stories: Art psychotherapy with mothers in prison who have killed or harmed their children

Jessica Collier

　

PART FOUR

Interventions following child care proceedings

10. Last chance saloon: From repetition to growth, a young mother's journey in brief psychotherapy

Fiona Henderson

11. Better outcomes and better justice: The Family Drug and Alcohol Court

Steve Bambrough, Nicholas Crichton & Sheena Webb

12. The mother in mind: A therapeutic group for mothers who have had a child removed from their care

Gwen Adshead & Anna Williams

13. Taking a break: The work of Pause

Content provided by Pause

Angela Foster, Beate Schumacher & Davina Jhummun

Glossary of psychoanalytic terms

Robert D. Hinshelwood

Index

Biography

Angela Foster is a psychiatric social worker, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, supervisor and consultant working with clinical teams and individuals in mental health, forensic, substance misuse and child care services. She has published many papers and co-edited a number of books.

I found the chapters to be well written and thought provoking. The book would be a helpful read for frontline social workers, and professionals who work alongside such mothers - such as drugs and substance misuse workers.

Farrukh Akhtar, Journal of Social Work Practice

This thought-provoking book of essays on mothers who harm, or are accused of harming, their children, will become required reading for professionals seeking to understand what one eminent contributor, Estela Welldon, has famously described as perverse motherhood. Edited by Angela Foster, with contributions from a wide range of experts ranging from the law to psychology, the book describes groundbreaking work across disciplines seeking to support women who have complex needs but are also a risk to their children. The book makes a powerful argument for treating such women, rather than marginalising them, so that the cycle of neglect and harmful mothering can be challenged and finally broken.　

Katharine Quarmby, Author and Journalist.

Nothing can be more vital than the mental health of mothers, who, if loved, will nurture their offspring to become law-abiding citizens or, who, if abused, will be at risk of rearing criminals. Angela Foster has curated a magnificent collection of carefully constructed essays, written by leading forensic mental health professionals, who explain not only the causes of maternal violence – often stemming from humiliation and trauma – but, also, the devastating consequences thereof. The contributors provide a veritable blueprint for treatment and, hopefully, for prevention. This book must be read by every serious student of psychology, criminology, feminism, and politics.

Professor Brett Kahr, Senior Fellow, Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology, London, and Senior Clinical Research Fellow, Centre for Child Mental Health, London, and Series Editor for the Routledge "Forensic Psychotherapy Monograph Series".

This is an essential collection of powerful papers about women who re-enact trauma and abuse with their children, and the ways in which society fails these women. Angela Foster has skilfully brought together a wealth of information about mothers who abuse and the systems that treat them. This important book offers expert accounts of mothers who inflict serious harm on their children, the intergenerational transmission of violence and perversion and profound insights by clinicians working with mothers and babies in women’s prisons, and within secure health settings.

Anna Motz, Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist and Author.