Moms Gone Mad: Motherhood and Madness Oppression and Resistance





Price: $34.95

Page Count: 240

Publication Date: October 2012

ISBN: 978-0-9866671-7-6

Impetus for this landmark collection emerged from the extraordinary success of the Moms Gone Mad: Motherhood and Madness Oppression and Resistance International Conference in New York City, 2009. Cultural meanings extolled on motherhood are often overlooked and many women struggle and personalize issues to themselves and remain silent. This anthology synthesizes and roars out marginalized experiences of moms in a culture that relegates unconventional experiences to ‘craziness’ and her own ‘madness’. From a feminist perspective, scholars in motherhood across disciplines and mothers steeped in the experience have come together to capture multifarious experiences of oppression to resistance in a groundbreaking anthology that embodies motherhood empowerment. This book enhances dialogue and revolutionizes our understanding of motherhood constructions and experiences by exploring the underbelly of mothering and subjugated experiences such as women’s inhumanity to women and deconstructing notions of ‘mommy’ in literature/media that are oppressive. Critical examinations of the ‘good mother’, ‘mother-shame’, and ‘mother-guilt’, growing up a daughter of depression, body image and disordered eating in motherhood, postpartum depression are explored as well as experiences such as single motherhood, mothering a child with disability, and childlessness; and perceived anomalies such as losing a child to suicide and postpartum psychosis and more.

Introduction, Reformation of Motherhood and Madness: Matroreform—Gina Wong
Mothers, Madness, and the Labour of Feminist Practice: Responding to Women in the Perinatal Period-- Jules Smith and Marina Morrow
The Space Between: Mothering in the Context of Contradiction? -- Joanne Minaker
“The First Rule Is That a Mother Should Govern Her Own Feelings”: Modern Child-Rearing Advice and the Discipline of Maternal Emotions-- Roblyn Rawlins
Creating a Space for Mothers Whose Children Have Died by Suicide-- Donna Johnson and Helen Levine
Blaming No ‘Body’: Motherhood and Disordered Eating—Gina Wong and Shelly Russell-Mayhew
Single Mothers, Stereotypes, and the Insanity of Raising a Child on Your Own—Ellen Hauser
Outlaw(ing) Motherhood: A Theory and Politic of Maternal Empowerment for the 21st Century (reprinted)—Andrea O’Reilly
The Persistence and Destructiveness of Mother-Blame within Psychological Theory-- Regina Edmonds
Postpartum Depression: Culture as Dominate Risk Factor—Gina Wong, Karine Bordua, and Caroline Sandhurst
Fractured Motherhood-- Alison Watts
(Im)Balancing Act: Caregiving, Depression, and Stress while Mothering Children with Special Needs-- Jennifer Silverman
Postpartum Psychosis: A Mother of Madness—Gina Wong and Teresa Twomey
Daughters of Depression: Life Inside the Bell Jar-- Nancy Gerber
Misplaced Blame: Maternal Depression, Mother-Child Interaction and Attachment—Nicole Letourneau and Gerald Giesbrecht
Envious Mothers, Beautiful, High-Spirited Daughters: The First Step Towards Women’s Inhumanity to Women (revised and reprinted)-- Phyllis Chesler
Culture Representations of Childlessness: Stories of Motherhood Resistance—Grace Bosibori Nyamongo
Mocking Mom: Joke or Hate Speech (revised and reprinted)--Paula Caplan
Call Me Crazy (reprinted play)—Paula Caplan
The Killing of a Woman: An Organized Crime—Naomi Binder Wall
The Mother/Child Papers Revisited (revised and reprinted)-- Alicia Ostriker

Dr. Gina Wong is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Centre for Applied Psychology at Athabasca University, Canada. She is a Registered Psychologist who specializes and publishes/presents nationally and internationally on maternal mental health and wellness. Gina directs a counselling and consulting practice devoted to adolescent girls and women. She is a Board of Director with the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement and Demeter Press and is an Advisory Board member with the Journal of Motherhood Initiative. She is the Alberta Co-coordinator with Postpartum Support International and directs the Disordered Eating and Body Image Treatment (DEBIT) Program. Gina resides in Edmonton, Alberta with her two young daughters.