Grandmotherland: Exploring the Myths and Realities

How might we better understand our travels through Grandmotherland? In this lively exploration, an experienced child psychotherapist draws together a wide range of perspectives on the role and experience of grandmothers.

Judith Edwards looks back to the past and forward to the future, while being rooted in the reality of the modern grandmother’s life. We meet ‘good’ grannies, ‘bad’ grannies, and all those in between, as well as women who decided to be agents of transmission in other ways than passing on their DNA. Our guide looks at how the behaviour of the grandmother is affected by personality, culture, tradition and ‘norms’ and considers how psychoanalytic insights may help us understand this territory of life.

Contents:

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: We begin the journey and see where we go

CHAPTER 2: Pits and pitfalls: is the Grandmother a made-up creature?

CHAPTER 3: Grandmothers around the world

CHAPTER 4: ‘The Good Granny’

CHAPTER 5: Finding your place

CHAPTER 6: A Granny story: Little Red Riding Hood

CHAPTER 7: ‘The Bad Granny’

CHAPTER 8: Flo and Co: Grandmothers recalled over the years

CHAPTER 9: Conclusion: In which we sum up what we may have learned along the way