MOTHER, MADONNA, WHORE:
THE IDEALIZATION AND DENIGRATION OF MOTHERHOOD
Last published Clinica Psimatica (2013) and Karnac Books (2011)
“Despite the fact that this book was published in 1988 and aroused some controversy because of its subject matter, the book has never been out of print and still sells actively, and has been adopted as a key text in some universities
It has also been translated into numerous different languages.”
– Estella Welldon
Welldon explores why the quality of their bodies is fundamental to women’s psychology; how this may lead to self-mutilation; and how such perverse behavior may also be aimed at objects which women see as their own creations, specifically, their babies. The potential causes and consequences of these conditions, including maternal and paternal incest and its frequent aftermath, prostitution, are also discussed.
BMJ MEDICAL CLASSIC: Mother, Madonna, Whore
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that women, being in want of a penis, lack the necessary means for perversion. Or so it was until the publication in 1988 of Mother, Madonna, Whore…”
Read the rest of Pamela Ashurst’s review of Estela Welldon’s ‘medical classic’ Mother, Madonna, Whore in the BMJ here.
Editions and publications, in reverse chronological order
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NEW! Russian translation of Mother, Madonna, Whore
To find out more, go here.
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Extracts from Mother, Madonna, Whore, have been published as part of the programme notes for the recent production of MEDEA at the National Theatre. The reference appears in Baroness Helena Kennedy’s notes, Autumn 2014.More information here.
Reissued as ‘Perversionen der Frau’ with a prologue by Sophinette Becker by Psychosozial-Verlag (2014)
Buy: Perversionen der Frau
Translated into Spanish as Madre, Virgen, Puta: La perversión sexual femenina published by Psimática (2013)
Buy: Madre, virgen, puta : un estudio de la perversión femenina
Second Greek edition. Translated into Greek by Athina Tsoukali, published by Anatolikos publishers.
Translated into Polish as Matka, Madonna, Dziwka: Idealizacja i ponizenie macierzynstwa: published by Ofycina Ingenium (2010)
Madre, Virgen, Puta: La Perversión Sexual Femenin (Argentina, 2008)
Buy: Madre, virgen, puta: las perversiones femeninas
Current edition UK Karnac (2004)
Buy: Mother, Madonna, Whore: The Idealization and Denigration of Motherhood
Published by The Other Press (2004)
‘Perversionen der Frau’ with a prologue by Sophinette Becker by Psychosozial-Verlag (2003)
Buy: Perversionen der Frau
Translated into Turkish ‘Anne: Melek mi,Yosma mi?’ by Airinti Yayinlar
Alçaltılması’, Translated by Semra Kunt Akbaş – Can Kurultay, Published by: Ayrıntı Yayınları (2001)
Translated into Greek ‘The Dark Side of Motherhood’ (1997)
Translated into Italian ‘Madre, Madonna, Prostituta: Idealizzazione e denigrazione della maternita’ (1995)
Centro Scientifico Editore.
American Edition, Guilford Press (1992)
Selected by the Book Club of the British Institute of Psychoanalysis (1992)
Translated into German as ‘Mutter, Madonna, Hure’ (1992)
Bonz Verlag GMBH Waiblingen
Translated into Spanish ‘Madre, Madonna, Prostituta’ published by Siglo XXI Madrid, Spain (1991)
Awarded joint first place in the Popular Press Writing Award by the Menninger Alumni in (1990)
Free Association Books, London (1988)
MOTHER, MADONNA, WHORE 20 YEARS ON – DEVELOPING THE WORK OF ESTELA WELLDON
A one-day conference celebrating the work of Dr Estela Welldon held at the Portman Clinic, London on 16th May 2008.
2008 marks the 20 year anniversary of the publication of Estela Welldon’s seminal book Mother, Madonna, Whore: The Idealization and Denigration of Motherood. This book had a major impact on the psychoanalytic understanding of female perversion and continues to be quoted as a seminal work.
Dr Estela Welldon worked for many years as Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at the Portman Clinic, part of The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She is the Founder and Elected Honorary President for Life of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy. The Portman Clinic organised this conference as a tribute to Estela Welldon’s work and to consider the ways in which her thinking has been developed over the years
Programme:
Dancing with Death
Dr Estela Welldon
Discussant
Professor Paul Verhaeghe
Panel ‘Womanhood’
Mythologies and Stereotypes: a woman’s lot
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
Infanticide, Suicide or Matricide?
Dr Carine Minne
Thinking the Unthinkable: Facing maternal abuse
Anna Motz
Panel – ‘Group Therapy’
From Freud to Foulkes to Forensic Psychotherapy
Dr Az Hakeem
The case of (ba) I: A/M or Inchohesion: Aggregation/Massification as the fourth basic assumption in the unconscious life of groups
Dr Earl Hopper
Sex, Gender and VIolence: Estela Welldon’s Contribution to Our Understanding of the Psychopathology of Violence
Professor James Gilligan