麻豆传媒

Psychology鈥檚 perennial favourite鈥攂laming Mum鈥攕eems to be an
increasingly threadbare ideology: long-term studies, for instance, have
recognised that mental health often depends on how well babies fit
temperamentally with both their parents. James Park鈥檚 Sons, Mothers and Other
Lovers (Abacus, 拢7.99, ISBN 0 349 10740 8), a look at men鈥檚 fear of
intimacy, wags a finger at extremists in the men鈥檚 movement and neglectful
fathers; but the focus is firmly on mothers, whose combination of power and
otherness leaves boys, Park says, in a state of virtual womb envy. The
labels鈥斺�漝emanding鈥� mothers, 鈥渓ovelorn鈥� sons鈥� don鈥檛 help.