Psychoanalysis was her family' s religion- instead of wafers and wine, there were Seconals, Nembutals, and gin. Baptized into the faith at fourteen, Melissa Knox endured her analyst' s praise of her childlike, victimized mother- who leaned too close, ate off Melissa' s plate, and thought " pedophile" meant " silly person." Gaslighted with the notions that she' d seduced her father, failed to masturbate, and betrayed her mother, Melissa shouldered the blame. Her story of a family pulled into and torn apart by psychoanalysis exposes the abuse inherent in its authoritarianism as Melissa learns, with a startling sense of humor and admirable chagrin, that divorcing Mom is sometimes the least crazy thing to do.
"Divorcing Mom is a story of horrifying and at times hilarious family dysfunction, compounded by the browbeating Freudian analyst whom Knox's mother hired to 'help' her. The pages seem to turn by themselves in this engrossing and courageous memoir, and we are left marveling at Knox's strength of character and artistic gifts in tracing her family's psychic trajectory from one generation to the next. Knox writes with the voice and vision that she was taught to discredit and ignore from an early age, and her book is a remarkable achievement, exploring family secrets and addressing disturbing issues of power differentials-between parent and child, doctor and patient, and men and women. Her intelligence, insight, and refreshing sense of humor are cause for celebration."
Helen Fremont, author of After Long Silence
"Divorcing Mom is fast paced and reads like a detective story about one's own family. I look forward to her next work."
Dr. Phyllis Chesler
"Readers would be hard-pressed to find a mother-daughter narrative as unique and compelling as Melissa Knox's Divorcing Mom. With imaginative and intelligent prose, Knox probes her life as the daughter of a deeply narcissistic mother and her years with a Freudian therapist gone badly wrong. One asks the question, can anyone survive such damage? Knox does, and her memoir shows us how."
