The (m)other-daughter relationship in McCurdy’s I’m glad my mom died: codependency, anorexia nervosa, and self dis(re)covery

ABSTRACT

Drawing on clinical psychology, psychosexual development and gender studies, this article examines the mother-daughter dysfunctional co-dependent dyad and eating disorders in McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, a memoir that McCurdy published 10 years after the death of her mother. With a focus on Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa, this article scrutinizes the control-based mother-daughter relationship between Jennette and her mother Debra. This paper closely studies the internalized overbearing (m)other figure in McCurdy’s memoir in relation to McCurdy’s internalized anorexic voice in light of the dysfunctional co-dependent mother-daughter relationship. This ambivalent mother-daughter relationship is illuminated through inappropriate caretaking, manipulation, parentification, projection and intrusiveness, which are effects of co-dependency. Laced with shame and economic guilt, this enmeshed mother-daughter relationship shapes McCurdy’s memoir-pathography. Paradoxically, we contend that the loss of this ambivalent mother-daughter relationship is what triggers McCurdy to start her journey of self dis(re)covery through the writing of her memoir, thus reclaiming her subjective identity and agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Mother-daughter relationship
• co-dependency
• eating disorders
• anorexia nervosa
• bulimia nervosa
• pathography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noor Alzaghal

Noor Alzaghal has a BA in English Language and Literature from An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine and is currently pursuing an MA in Comparative Literature from the English Department at An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. Her interests are in world literature, gender studies and women’s writings.

Bilal Hamamra

Bilal Hamamra has a PhD in Early Modern Drama from the University of Lancaster, UK and works currently as an associate professor of English Literature at the Department of English Language and Literature, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. His research interests are in Early Modern Drama, Shakespeare, Women’s Writings, Gender Studies, Palestinian Studies and Pedagogy. His articles on language, gender politics, martyrdom and diaspora have appeared in Early Modern Literary Studies, Critical Survey, ANQ, Journal for Cultural Research, Journal of Gender Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Anglia, Psychodynamic Practice, The Explicator, Comparative Literature: East & West, Middle East Critique, English: Journal of the English Association, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Social Identities, Arab Studies Quarterly, Interventions and Changing English, among others.