My Mothers Breast or Tibetan Book of Healing

My Mother's Breast: Daughters Face Their Mothers' Cancer

Author: Laurie Tarkan

The book focuses on the unique psychological needs of women who must deal with the pain and devastation of their mothers' illness while repressing fears for their own health. Tarkan profiles a wide range of women who have witnessed the effects of breast cancer and relates how they dealt with the fear, anger, guilt, feelings of sexuality and grief. By sharing these stories of strength and courage, this book provides long-overdue support for the loved ones of breast cancer patients.

The book also includes information on preventive measures women can take, how they can determine their own risk levels and how they can deal with the anxiety of their own possible diagnosis. It also supplies strategies from leading psychologists and psychiatrists for coping and resources for people faced with the repercussions of the illness.

About the Author:

Laurie Tarkan is a journalist whose work has appeared regularly in national magazines, including McCall's, Health, Mademoiselle, Shape and Self. Her clearest memory of her childhood began the day her own mother died of cancer when Laurie was just 11. Laurie earned her B.A. at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania and her M.A. from New York University's graduate school for journalism. A resident of New York City, she is the winner of the Rose Kushner Award for Writing Achievement in the Field of Breast Cancer.

Lisa Ferguson

When breast cancer strikes, attention invariably turns to the patient. It's easy to forget, thought, that people closest to the patient-parents, spouses, children, other relatives and care-givers - can also suffer greatly from the disease's effects. Laurie Tarkan, who, as a pre-teen, lost her mother to a rare liver disorder, first began to understand the toll breast cancer takes on daughters whose mothers who are stricken with it while researching an article for Self magazine. "I heard they were undergoing a lot of anxiety and stress and just having real difficulty with the situation," says Tarkan, the New York author of My Mother's Breast: Daughters Face Their Mothers' Cancer, which charts the courses of 10 women dealing with their mother's breast cancer. "I think because they're not actually patients themselves, they get overlooked," she says. -- ( Las Vegas Sun, 5/3/99 )

Carolyn Poirot

At 22, Sunshine London left her carefree life as a college student, model and surfer girl in Santa Barbara, Calif., and moved home to Las Vegas to take on the biggest responsibility of her life - nursing her mother, who had breast cancer, and caring for her five younger siblings...The story is one of more than a dozen told of daughters dealing with their mothers' cancer in an inspiring new book for the daughters of women with breast cancer.

For the 180,000 women found to have breast cancer each year, the news changes not only their own lives, but also the lives of the loved ones who support them, and often grieve for them, author Laurie Tarkan points out. Daughters, in particular, face the sobering reality of their mothers' disease and treatment as well as fear and anxiety over the possibility that they may face a similar future themselves. -- ( Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, 4/27/99 )

Bette-Lee Fox

Award-winning journalist Tarkan (Self, McCall's) tries here to help daughters of women diagnosed with breast cancer deal with the changes that come with their mother's illness or death, changes that can affect an already fragile mother/daughter relationship. Her book is split into two parts. Part 1 Features 16 women whose stories, divided into subject-related chapters, encompass the mother/daughter scenario...Part 2 discusses stratagems for daughters who fear their own illness and mortality and stresses the basics of early detection, getting all available information on treatments and therapies, and coping...A secondary purchase for psychotherapists, social workers, and counselors of women with breast cancer and their families and for larger public libraries and inclusive patient-health/psychology collections. -- ( Library Journal, 4/15/99 )

Helen Bond

Just because you have a family history of breast and ovarian cancer, that does not mean you will inherit on of the gene mutations that make women more susceptible to these diseases. Still, for many women, that news offers little consolation. In the new book, My Mother's Breast: Daughters Face Their Mothers' Cancer, magazine writer Laurie Tarkan looks at the unique psychological needs of daughters dealing with the pain of their mothers' breast cancer and their own health risks. -- ( Dallas Morning News, 4/19/99 )

Library Journal

Award-winning journalist Tarkan (Self, McCalls) tries here to help daughters of women diagnosed with breast cancer deal with the changes that come with their mothers illness or death, changes that can affect an already fragile mother/daughter relationship. Her book is split into two parts. Part 1 features 16 women whose stories, divided into subject-related chapters (e.g., Mothering Mom, Adolescent Angst, Depression and Fear), encompass the mother/daughter breast cancer scenario. Clinical commentary from professionals makes these accounts less compelling and less cathartic than many cancer narratives; readers will more readily identify with Gayle Feldmans You Dont Have To Be Your Mother (LJ 2/15/94). Part 2 discusses stratagems for daughters who fear their own illness and mortality and stresses the basics of early detection, getting all available information on treatments and therapies, and coping. This second section is informative, but whole books on the subject (e.g., Joseph Keons The Truth About Breast Cancer: A 7-Step Prevention Plan, LJ 10/15/98) are more so. A secondary purchase for psychotherapists, social workers, and counselors of women with breast cancer and their families and for larger public libraries and inclusive patient-health/psychology collections.Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

What People Are Saying

Randy Gross
[My Mother's Breast] is a well-written testament to the anxieties, emotions, and issues that these women experience. Also, the content regarding risk is thorough, clear, and accurate, which makes it a great resource for women at high risk for the development of breast cancer.

I have been working with this population of women for several years, and always struggled to find good information...Futhermore, how to address the emotional and psychosocial piece of their situation remains a challenge for clinicians, so we have decided to use your book as a reference for the patients in our Special Surveillance Breast Program here at Memorial [Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center]...to provide it to our participants who we feel will benefit, as it most definitely will be helpful to many women. I appreciate your contribution to these women through your writing.
— (Randy Gross MS, RN, CS, AOCN, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Special Surveillance Breast Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center)

Look this: Roe v Wade or 1973 Nervous Breakdown

Tibetan Book of Healing

Author: Lopsang Rapgay

For the first time the principles and practical applications of Tibetan medical and Buddhist psychological guidelines have been used for centuries by spiritual masters and practitioners to apprach life in a healthy and balanced manner. The Tibetan approach to life has points in common with Ayurveda from India and Chinese medicine. Its goal of wellness is defined by the following:

• Freedom from serious psychological and physical disease.
• Adherence to a health plan based on your personality, your body type and needs, and your capacity to fulfill and meet those needs.
• An understanding of the changing and impermanent nature of life and, within that understanding, the awareness of a purpose in life.
• Acceptance of the stress and change found in relationships, the environment, the seasons and the aging process.
• A sense of moral responsibility and a willingness to learn and grow.
• A feeling of positive accomplishment, contentment and appreciation for being human.