This volume is an exciting collection of papers that explore a wide range of issues that affect sibling relationships--a long neglected subject in the arena of psychoanalytic thought.

Since the time of Sigmund Freud, psychoanalytic attention has focused firmly on the Oedipal triangle, with siblings languishing in virtual oblivion. In recent years, the importance of siblings and sibling relationships has started to be investigated, but we are still at the very beginning of formulating theory on this subject. This makes it an exciting and fascinating issue for the analysts who are...

-Coles' book starts from the claim that traditionally psychoanalysis, in stressing the relations of conflict between children and parents, has tended to overlook and displace the co-operative relations between siblings. This is a claim clearly worth investigating.- -- Professor Richard Wollheim

The Shadow of the "Second Mother" explores why has there been such little interest, in psychology, social history and biography, in the important contribution that 'second mothers', such as wet nurses and nannies, have had upon the emotional life of the children they have nursed.　 For the last three thousand years and throughout most civilisations they have nurtured the children of the privileged, and kept alive the abandoned and unwanted child, and yet there has been a profound silence surrounding the influence they may have had.

The author explores the lives...

The Shadow of the "Second Mother" explores why has there been such little interest, in psychology, social history and biography, in the important contribution that 'second mothers', such as wet nurses and nannies, have had upon the emotional life of the children they have nursed.　 For the last three thousand years and throughout most civilisations they have nurtured the children of the privileged, and kept alive the abandoned and unwanted child, and yet there has been a profound silence surrounding the influence they may have had.

The author explores the lives...