The Invisible Presence, by Michael Gurian (My Review at Wildmind Buddhist Meditation)

I recently reviewed the re-issue of Michael Gurian's Mothers, Sons, and Lovers for Wildmind Buddhist Meditation, under it's new name The Invisible Presence: How a Man's Relationship with His Mother Affects All His Relationships with Women.

Here's a taste:

Now boys live at home until college, and often they return when school is finished until they can find a job and their own apartment. Mothers make this separation process even more difficult in trying to maintain their early attachment to their child, which is the opposite of what a young man needs. An adolescent boy is beginning the individuation process, moving away from the mother and into the world of men, and going to college should finalize this separation. Yet this is not happening for a lot of young men.

So what happens to the son when the mother has been dismissing the role of the father, or dismissing the roles of men in general — or worse, disparaging the father with put-downs or insults? How is a boy to find his place in the male world when his mother has negated what he is destined to become, an adult man?

As Gurian demonstrates, that boy does not become an adult man — he remains stuck in an in-between place where he needs the approval of women and men to feel of value, in essence, because there has not been any internalized male ideal (since men are bad, abusive, or useless: “all men are pigs,” “men suck!” “all men want is sex,” or “men have ruined the world”). While this does not happen in the majority of young men’s lives, it does happen much more than we would like to believe.

Read the whole, lengthy review.

Tags: Michael Gurian, Mothers Sons and Lovers, Wildmind Buddhist Meditation, The Invisible Presence, Man's Relationship with His Mother, Affects, Relationships with Women, men, boys, psychology, development, books, relationships, Jungian psychology