Understanding the Borderline Mother: Helping Her Children Transcend the Intense, Unpredictable, and Volatile Relationship

MY DH came home to find me on the couch with two highlighters in my hand, one pink, one yellow and this book. He asked me what I was doing.
"Everything in yellow is my Mother, everything in pink is me. I'm terrified."
This book explained alot to me, and allowed me to accept my mother for who she is and what she can never be.

"Understanding the Borderline Mother" is a highly informative book for the outsider, and is helpful in understanding not only the borderline parent, but in understanding and helping her children as well. This book was very well organized, and very well researched.

My personal experience with the book, however, was a sense I was the fly on the wall at my family reunion. I often found myself saying, "Oh, there's Grandma..." and "That explains my mother a lot." But the biggest surprise for me was the realization that my dad, not so much my mom, was a borderline... a big A-HA! for me. This should tell you that the book is a very accurate portrayal.

I would reccommend this book for anyone who works with, psychologists, social workers, etc, or show more is an adult child of a borderline parent. For me, this book is a bit late, as my father passed away in 2004, but I found much of what the author reccommends the adult child do, I did long before he passed. But I did learn a lot about myself as well, including why I picked my name, "The Kool-Aid Mom", and why that has been a wonderfully helpful name for me, too! show less

It's been ages since I read this. But it was a godsend for me. Helped me understand when before was chaos and hurt.

"Understanding the Borderline Mother" by Christine Ann Lawson is an interesting book, but I felt that it focused far too much on the negative aspects (yes there are many) of the Borderline Personality. If you pick up this book, but didn't know anything about Borderline Personality Disorder you would probably think that people with the disorder are pure awful with no redeeming qualities. The book does have some good aspects and is compelling to read, but it seems too one-sided and lacks any understanding of any of the pain and suffering that might motivate the behavior of a person with this disorder. Borderlines are often difficult patients and difficult people to understand, but many times it seems they are completely misunderstood in show more therapeutic situations. This book does not really attempt to "understand" the Borderline, but does describe some of the behaviors that are often times seen. show less

If you work in the mental health field, have family members who struggle with mental illness, or just an interest in the damaged mind, this is a fascinating read. I found I could not put this book down and read it in a couple of days. I found it helped me in dealing with borderline personalities and placing boundaries, with time limits. This may be the much needed step, for children dealing with a very difficult parent. A very good understanding of how really difficult this disorder is to treat and to live with.

Absolutely fantastic and from personal experience (with someone else's mother, not mine) this is completely on target. For anyone that has a borderline parent, this is a must-read.

Very enlightening read, but I'm not a psych expert so I'd take it with a grain of salt as being a little pop-psych with the different personality types.