From Susan Forward, Ph.D., the New York Times bestselling author of Toxic Parents and Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them, comes a practical and powerful book that will help couples cope with terrible and toxic in-laws. Toxic in-laws are in-laws who create genuine chaos through various assaults-aggressive or subtle-on you and your marriage. Toxic in-laws come in a wide variety of guises: "The Critics," who tell you what you're doing wrong;...

"Susan Forward ... offers a powerful look at the devastating impact unloving mothers have on their daughters--and provides clear, effective techniques for overcoming that painful legacy. In more than 35 years as a therapist, Forward has worked with large numbers of women struggling to escape the emotional damage inflicted by the women who raised them. Subjected to years of criticism, competition, role-reversal, smothering control, emotional neglect...

A practical guide to better communication that will break the blackmail cycle for good, by one of the nation's leading therapists, Susan Forward. "Breathe a sigh of relief! Susan Forward helps you identify and correct an intensely destructive and confusing pattern of relating with those you love. I highly recommend this important book!"-Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway "If you really loved me..." "After all I've done...

Emotional blackmail is a powerful form of manipulation in which people close to you threaten to punish you for not doing what they want. They know your vulnerabilities and use this knowledge to give them the payoff they want: your compliance.