Out Of the Shadows
daughters growing up with a 'mad mother'.

Author: Catherine E Camden-Pratt.
Publisher: Finch 2006.

Catherine's work poignantly pulls together stories from the accounts of eight women growing up a mentally ill mother, she discusses trauma, abuse, deprivation and the pains in coping with a mothers' mental illness. This work mirrors some of the early life story work in nnaami, however, Catherine specifically unveils mother daughter relationships and the stages of psychological development in a way never done before, which is highly relevant to these young daughters.

From a feminist perspective, her writing questions the origin and role of mothering, madness, mental illness, and the shifts in mental health care along with questioning dominant biological and social views of mental illness and also critically examines the power and politics of mental illness and women's madness. Catherine tells of immense suffering (including her own), the personal qualities and resilience portrayed overtime in these young women