Mothers: Their Power and Influence

A unique bond

Dr Ann Dally, a practising psychiatrist, provides an in-depth perspective on mothers, based on her experience observing mothers at a personal level.

Her perspective is intended to provide mothers, and new mothers, with a deeper understanding of the forces that may at times seem irrational.

She explores the three stages of motherhood: enclosure, extension and separation and stresses that it is important to understand these stages to be able to identify certain behavioural patterns.

Although there are a variety of other factors, understanding the mother-child relationship does play a significant role.

Included throughout the book are true accounts of Dr Ann Dally’s encounters with mothers and children, as well as excerpts from well-known works from D.H. Lawrence and Philip Roth, who both wrote about their own ‘enclosing’ mothers.

Going beyond the three stages of mothering, Dr Ann Dally covers the three types of environment that tie in with the stages of mothering.

This important analysis provides a further understanding of how the mother’s behaviour, along with the environment that surrounds the child, impacts a child’s future.

Mothers: Their Power and Influence sheds light on a variety of perspectives and really explores the dynamics and behaviours that make up mother/child relationships.

Praise for Ann Dally

‘Thorough and engaging' - Kirkus Reviews

'introduces a levelheaded view' - Kirkus Reviews

'refreshingly evenhanded' - Kirkus Reviews

Dr Ann Dally (1929-2007) was a pioneering English author and psychiatrist. She was born in London, the daughter of a distinguished lawyer and a half-American mother. She studied history, before qualifying in medicine and then in psychiatry, whilst going on to marry and have six children. Ann Dally wrote eleven books in all, including A-Z of Babies, The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Modern Medicine, A Child is Born, and The Morbid Streak.