Between Sisters: Secret Rivals, Intimate Friends - Hardcover

Mathias, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385304501 ISBN 13: 9780385304504

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1992

Synopsis

An exploration of the relationship between sisters describes how birth order, family spacing, geography, health, and differing perceptions affect those relationships and encourages women to understand the impact female siblings have on their development.
Foreign Rights: Germany and Sweden

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Mathias-Riegel is the author of Curtain Calls, a Collection of Short Stories, exploring love, loss, aging, aloneness and self-discovery. For over 30 years, she wrote features on family, psychology and women's issues which inspired her to write Between Sisters: Secret Rivals, Intimate Friends. Also, she co-authored 40 Ways to Raise a Nonracist Child.

Her award-winning articles appeared in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, L.A. Times Syndicate, Journal Newspapers, Modern Maturity (AARP) and Family Therapy Networker.

Reviews

Entertaining, compassionate and informative, this examination of the complex bonds between sisters builds on interviews with more than 75 women. Their stories illustrate the "light-and-dark world" of sisterhood--an ambivalence, says Mathias, neglected by both psychology and feminism. Thus she focuses on sororal competition as well as support, estrangements as well as "private languages." Such specific cases as twinship, a sister's death, the birth of a sister's first child, etc., are also explored. Among other issues, the author explains how sisters can have very different memories of a particular event, and she examines the effects of family dynamics and such factors as birth order, family size and parental favoritism. She also proposes that a woman's relationships with her biological sisters critically affects her psychological development. Mathias, who writes about mental health issues for the Washington Post , is the eldest of four sisters. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mathias, winner of the Washington Psychiatric Society's 1987 Community Achievement Award for her series of articles on mental health in the Washington Post , here explains how women relate to their biological sisters. Using examples and interviews, she traces the rivalry, problems, friendships, and joys that exist between sisters of all ages. Mathias draws upon interviews with over 75 women and states that her book is intended as a collection of observations. The resulting study, however, is more of a psychological and social examination of sisters. While this study may not interest the average lay reader, it is recommended for academic libraries with sociology and psychology collections.
- Jennifer Langlois, Missouri Western State Coll. Lib., St. Joseph
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385304501
• ISBN 13: 9780385304504
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 284