Book Review : Hand-Me-Down Dreams, Carol Antoinette Peacock, New York: Schocken, 1981, ISBN 0 8052 3761-5, ISBN 0 8052 0678-7 (pbk

• Author: Betty Tahourdin
• Date: 01 January 1982
• Published date: 01 January 1982
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X8202600102
• Subject Matter: Articles

17

Toolan,

J.

(1962)

Suicide

and

Suicidal

Attempts

in

Children

and

Adolescents,

American

Journal

of

Psychiatry,

118,

719-724.

— —

(1968)

Suicide

in

Childhood

and

Adolescence.

In

E.

Resnik

(Ed.),

Suicide

Behavior:

Diagnosis

and

Management,

Boston:

Little

Brown.

Winn,

D.

&

Halia,

R.

(1966)

Observations

of

Children

Who

Threaten

to

Kill

Themselves,

Canadian

Psychiatric

Association

Journal,

11,

283-

294.

Donald

McGuire,

A.C.S.W.,

Ed.D.

Assistant

Professor,

Fordham

University

Graduate

School

of Social

Service,

Lincoln

Center,

New

York,

10023,

USA.

Book

Review

Hand-Me-Down

Dreams,

Carol

Antoinette

Peacock,

New

York:

Schocken,

1981,

ISBN

0

8052

3761-5,

ISBN

0

8052

0678-7

(pbk).

In

a

recent

article

in

this

Journal

(23,

3,

1979)

Miss

Peacock

described

problems

in

mother-daughter

relationships

which

frequently

lead

to

delinquency

in

adolescence.

In

this

book,

she

examines

the

problem

in

detail,

and

describes

her

work

with

a

group

of

particularly

difficult

and

seemingly

hopeless

adolescent

girls.

They

were

all

brought

up

almost

entirely

by

a

mother

who

had

had

children

too

early,

had

failed

in

all

her

hopes

and

had

no

discipline

or

tradition

in

child-rearing

to

fall

back

on.

The

mothers

themselves

had

had

little

experience

of

a

loving

caring

upbringing;

they

sought

escape

and

love,

and

found

teenage

pregnancy,

poverty

and

loneliness,

increasingly

dependent

on

their

own

daughters

to

whom

they

had

passed

on

their

own

hopes

and

dreams-and

their

own

inadequacies.

Miss

Peacock

describes

how

she

established

her

&dquo;group&dquo;,

gave

them

a

feeling

of

belonging,

tried

to

meet

the

girls

and

their

mothers

regularly

and

independently,

tried

to

establish

limits

to

their

behaviour

and

by

continuous

encouragement

and

cajoling,

led

them

in

most

cases

to

a

more

realistic

view

of

life,

to

work

for

success

on

a

limited

basis

and

then

widen

their

vision

so

that

they

could

go

on

to

a

better

future.

At

the

same

time,

she

encouraged

the

mothers

to

accept

their

daughter’s

independence,

and

to

develop

their

own

interests

on

a

more

realistic

basis.

The

situation

described

is

an

unhappy

cycle

which

is

likely

to

go

on

perpetuating

itself

if

there

are

not

enough

people

like

the

author

willing

to

devote

a

great

deal

of

time

and

patience

and

care

on

adolescent

girls

of

this

type.

At

a

time

when

infertile

couples

have

the

greatest

difficulty

in

adopting

children,

would

it

not

be

better

to

reverse

the

current

trend

in

social

work

and

encourage

teenage

mothers

to

have

their

babies

adopted?

Not

only

would

the

mothers

have

the

chance

of

a

fresh

start,

but

the

babies

would

have

a

better

hope

for

the

future.

Betty

Tahourdin