Stepparenting: Creating and Recreating Families in America Today

by Cath; Stanley H.

• ISBN13: 9780881631760
• ISBN10: 0881631760
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-12-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In an era when teachers commonly report that up to half of the children in their classes come from multiple homes and have multiple caretakers, the special psychological challenges of stepparenting have never been in greater need of examination. As thoughtful clinicians have long known, stepparenting is among the most complicated of psychological projects: it may simultaneously be a multifaceted burden and a spur to personal autonomy, deepened sensitivity to others, and newfound competence as a nurturer. Among the thousands of divorced people who remarry each year, most - despite their best resolve to live in the present - persist in reassessing the price of separation, especially as they come to appreciate the fact that divorce is seldom a total break for their children. Stepparentingis a comprehensive exploration of the process of reconstructing families. More specifically, it is a book about the perils and promise of stepparenting, a caretaking role that may be more challenging than biologically given child rearing. Contributors follow people as they try to reevaluate past misunderstandings and acclimate to new parenting contexts and obligations. Editors Cath and Shopper have taken pains to offer a balanced purview that includes both successful and maladaptive instances of stepparenting. Of special note are the clincal examples throughout the book that chart the extended periods of slow, creative learning experienced by parents and children, biological and step, as they test the waters of new family systems and try to elicit newly attuned responses from each other.

Table of Contents

Preface: Some Reflections on Shakespeare and the History of Family Life	vii
Acknowledgments	xii
Contributors	xiv
INTRODUCTION
Stepfathers: Varieties and Job Descriptions	3	(16)
Moisy Shopper
DEVELOPMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
Some Steppaternal Possibilities	19	(8)
Lora Heims Tessman
Some Important Contributions of the Stepfather to the Psychological Development of the Boy	27	(22)
Eugenio M. Rothe
Between Marriages: A Period of Dread	49	(2)
Stanley H. Cath
Affect Tolerance: A Crucial Requirement for Substitute Parenting	51	(17)
Steven L. Nickman
The ``Henry VIII'' Syndrome: The Mystical Biological Bond Versus a Stepfather's ``Watching Her Spoil Her Own''	68	(1)
Stanley H. Cath
The Contemporary Stepfather's Search for Legitimacy	69	(12)
Ira Brenner
Fear of Maternal Aspects of a Stepmother: A Homage to My Stepmother, a Woman Who Transcended Living with an Adolescent Stepdaughter	81	(13)
Brenda Clorfene Solomon
The Challenge of Maintaining the Fathering Role After Divorce: Overcoming Shame	94	(8)
Eugenio M. Rothe
The Stepfather in a Reconstituted Family	102	(11)
H. Gunther Perdigao
Countertransferences: Stepfathers in Midlife and Beyond	113	(6)
Stanley H. Cath
The Vantage Points of Two Stepsisters in Midlife	119	(4)
Stanley H. Cath
The Death of a Stepfather: A Funeral That Cuts All Ties	123	(4)
Stanley H. Cath
CLINICAL DIMENSIONS
Stepfathers: Clinical Explorations	127	(16)
Robert M. Galatzer-Levy
The Ready Acceptance of a Stepfather: ``I Learned to Love Him Very Slowly''	143	(4)
Stanley H. Cath
Stepdaughters and Stepfathers: Living Together in a Haunted House	147	(18)
Martin A. Silverman
A Parade of Pseudostepfathers: Altruism and Gratification in a Surrogate Stepfather	165	(3)
Stanley H. Cath
On Childless Stepparents	168	(15)
Jerome S. Blackman
Naivete: Love and Hate Factors in the Outcome of Stepfatherhood	183	(14)
Henry J. Friedman
Jamie L. Feldman
Small Step, Giant Step: A Stepfather	197	(22)
Lord Heims Tessman
INCEST
Incest: What Is It, and How Did It Come to Be?	219	(12)
Moisy Shopper
Oedipal Reenactments with Stepmother and Stepfather: Incest and Splitting of the Superego	231	(8)
Leon Wurmser
``Reluctant but Necessary Rape'' in the Life of a Tween	239	(6)
Stanley H. Cath
CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND GENDER IMPLICATIONS
Uncounted Stepfamilies: Remarried Fathers and Their Wives	245	(17)
Jamie K. Keshet
Birthlands, Steplands, and Adopted Lands: The Immigrant's Tryst with Psychogeographic Maps and Territories	262	(15)
Purnima Mehta
The Stepfather in Sophocles' Electra	277	(22)
Melvin R. Lansky
FORENSIC ISSUES
Legal Rights of Stepparents: A Concept in Development	299	(12)
Moisy Shopper
Some Forensic, Financial, and Transference Considerations: A Stepdaughter as ``Family Brick''	311	(4)
Stanley H. Cath
Forensic and Therapeutic Issues in Stepparent Adoptions: A Psychoanalytic Perspective	315	(16)
Harold J. Bursztajn
Rachel R. Boersma
EPILOGUE
The Therapeutic Importance of ``Recognition Processes'' in Attachment, Detachment, and Reattachment Experiences	331	(8)
Stanley H. Cath
Moisy Shopper
Index	339