This book focuses on the role that siblings play in each other's development, on the ways in which they may enrich or cast a shadow over each other's lives, and on how their internalized influence can be recognized and dealt with in the clinical setting. Drawing from observational research and clinical experience, Joyce Edward considers how brothers and sisters, as important attachment figures, may contribute to each other's development of a sound sense of self and to their capacities for establishing satisfying social relationships. Edward also examines how excessive sibling envy, jealousy, and rivalry or physical, sexual or emotional abuse at the hands of a sibling can impede an individual's development and contribute to pathology. Detailed treatment examples demonstrate how essential it is to give siblings a place in the therapeutic situation, to recognize them not only as displacement figures for parents but also as persons who hold an important place in the minds of patients, exerting influence on the way they relate to their mates, their children, their friends, and their therapists.

"A comprehensive review of the literature on siblings, such as Edward has laboriously amassed, provides the perfect foundation for engaging in the kind of integrative thinking about siblings that has been largely missing from our literature, and thereby contributes a theory of sibling relationships that is broad, psychological and clinically useful.... This is a worthwhile contribution. Moreover, the many intriguing examples across the volume, the clinical focus and the select strong chapters make this book worth reading for those who want a sample of the range of clinically relevant ideas on siblings. For those who want more than a sample, this book provides a good place from which to launch an in-depth investigation of the wide-ranging literature on the sibling relationship." - The International Journal of Psychoanalysis