{"product_id":"the-wrong-son-9781068176692","title":"The Wrong Son : A memoir","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Wrong Son is a memoir of emotional precision - a searching, unsparing\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eaccount of what it means to come into being in the absence of love.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1963, a young husband loses his pregnant wife and eighteen-month-old son\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ein a car accident. Six months later, he meets a woman who abandons her own\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehusband and child for him - a man who seems to her everything she has ever\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewanted.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWithin two years, a boy is born into this family of grief and guilt, into a house\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ealready filled with ghosts, where neither parent can see him clearly through\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewhat each has lost.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis mother demands perfection. His father, meanwhile, decides early on that\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethis child exists only because the first one died - and cannot forgive him for it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoulded by his mother, rejected by his father, he is given no space in which to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebecome himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThroughout his life, no matter how much he tries to invent himself, he is driven\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eby the fear that nothing real exists underneath. Fifty years on, after his parents'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edeaths, that fear begins to unmoor him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe turns to the work of psychoanalysts who were pioneers of early childhood\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epsychology around the time he was born.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on the insights of D.W. Winnicott and Jacques Lacan, The Wrong Son\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etraces a life shaped not only by loss and violence, but by psychic damage that\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emay never fully be shaken off.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith forensic clarity and unexpected humour, The Wrong Son is a quietly\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edevastating work: deeply human, psychologically attuned, and unafraid to stay\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewith what cannot be resolved.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor: Neil Griffiths\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAutobiography: literary, Memoirs, Psychological theory \u0026amp; schools of thought\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003ch5\u003ePublished on 28 May 2026 by Weatherglass Books.\u003c\/h5\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePaperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Neil Griffiths","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57320613314938,"sku":"9781068176692","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0373\/4125\/files\/9781068176692.jpg?v=1790659161","url":"https:\/\/belfastbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-wrong-son-9781068176692","provider":"Belfast Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}