Kim Chernin is renowned for her prolific writing -- including fiction and memoir -- on issues affecting women's lives, ranging from eating disorders and sex to relationships. In The Woman Who Gave Birth to Her Mother, she offers readers a culmination of that work -- a fully integrated vision that will help women resolve their lifelong struggles with their mothers and become fully independent, capable people. Exploring six compelling case histories of women who have resolved these issues in unique and creative ways, Chernin offers her own insights based on years of working with women in therapy, and on her own problematic relationship with her daughter. A tour de force of analysis, compassion, and erudition, this exciting, important work is further evidence that Chernin is "blessed with the eloquence of a poet and the gifts of a born therapist" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Chernin takes us inside the mind of the psychoanalyst and her patients as few other books have done. In an almost novelistic fashion, she recalls her own analysis with three very different analysts (1967-71, 1972-83, and 1984-92) and how she grew as an individual through her work with them. It is a rare act of self-disclosure that is both moving and revelatory. A moving, provocative, and eminently readable book that raises crucial questions for those concerned with psychoanalysis and self-knowledge. A compelling recounting of the rewards and shortcomings of psychoanalysis . . . rich with discovery.