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In the Shadow of Fame, by the daughter of world-renowned psychoanalyst and theorist Erik Erikson, is the intimate story of her struggle to come to terms with her father’s fame and to develop a sense of self in a family—and world—in which being famous is the very definition of being a worthwhile human being. And, while her story is unique in its personal details, it is also a description of the struggle faced by all of us in a modern world.

Lisa Lelas

Anne Bernays

Margaret A. Malaspina

Priscilla A. Maine

As the daughter of child development expert Erik Erikson, Bloland and her siblings experienced a joyful and tormented childhood. Celeste Lawson provides a warm representation of Bloland's view of childhood. Surprisingly, Erikson and his wife were unstable parents and incompatible marital partners whose quest for the limelight provided little stability for their children. Their lives in sunny California appeared idyllic and glamorous; the family home was surrounded by beautiful flower, vegetable, and fruit gardens tended by Bloland's mother, and a pool where many a party overlooked gorgeous sunsets. But her father's affairs, her mother's passive-aggressive personality, their worrisome behaviors, and the shocking discovery of an institutionalized sibling with Down's syndrome proved too bizarre for the children to understand. B.J.P. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

 

“Sue Bloland excavates the complex, layered dynamics of the family that her prominent parents forged. She arrives at unprecedented depth and remarkable insights.”

 

Sue Erikson Bloland did graduate work in both anthropology and sociology before obtaining her master’s degree in social work from New York University and her certificate in psychoanalysis from the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis. She has written for the Atlantic Monthly and Psychoanalytic Dialogues and has given numerous lectures on fame. A practicing psychotherapist in New York City and a faculty member at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, she lives in Lanesville, New York.