| nursethesoul

she-initiates:

“The Mad Mother cannot talk with her daughters on a feeling level. She dominates her daughters through her particular form of behavior, whether she is an Ice Queen with frozen feelings, a Dragon Lady with so much emotion that genuine feelings and their nuances are burnt up in her volcanic explosions, a Sick Mother who controls everyone around her with the threat of her frailty, or a Saint Mother who, needing to be “good,” maintains a superficial and martyred personality, expecting her children to follow suit. A daughter’s emotions and psychology are subjugated by the Mad Mother, and she needs to learn to separate from the Mad Mother’s enforced behaviors in order to recognize her own feelings and inner self. Otherwise, she may repeat her mother’s patterns.”

— Linda Schierse Leonard, Meeting the Madwoman: Empowering the Feminine Spirit; (Mad Mothers, Mad Daughters)