Mommy Dearest

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I love watching movies about narcissism, bipolar disorder, erotomania
etc

My parents are narcissist and watching such films gives me a idea about
narcissistic behaviour patterns

Mommy dearest is a true story about christina crawford adopted daughter
of actress joan crawford

The torture tina endured at the hands of her mother can be clearly seen and felt
in this movie i felt like i was reliving my past

I love this movie, because it is so delightfully bad. I'm not commenting on the content, Joan Crawford was clearly a bad parent and emotionally ill. It's just that Faye Dunaway really overacts. There are a couple of things that have stayed with me. One is the wire hanger scene where she gets so angry because there are wire hangers in her daughter's closet. Well, what child decides what type of hangers are in her closet? Another is the series of scenes where she insists the daughter eats a plate of very rare meat for days, refusing to feed her until she eats the bloody meat. I decided in raising my son, I wasn't going to fight power struggles over things that didn't really matter, and I will say that scene influenced me.

But I understand your desire to watch films about such people.

And finally, because I like to post pictures:

I have the book, and have seen the movie. When I first read it I thought that Joan was a horrible parent. After reading several interviews with others who were around during those times, and their accounts of the same situations were very different than Christina's, I've come to the conclusion that she overplayed it for the book. In other words, I don't believe it, because of the very different accounts in interviews with others who she states in the book as having witnessed the incidents.

if i write a book about my parents behaviour with me it would be said that i overplayed it for sake of publicity
but honestly it would be truth and it may sound far fetched....i know.

I saw this film once...my mother forbade me from seeing it again. My theory on this is that it reminded her too much of herself.

My mom didn't have any particular issues with wire hangers, but in one eerily similar occassion, she walked in my room to see I hadn't hung my clean clothes in the closet yet, so she proceeded to open my closet and throw all of the clothes that WERE on hangers onto the floor.

Based on my own experiences, I'd be apt to believe Christina, not friends and family who may not have had an inside look. My mom seems very normal, fun and even kind to most people, because that is her public persona. Inside of our home, she was basically psychotic. She was emotionally and physically abusive, but would frequently adamantly deny that the abuse had ever occurred. She thought my sister and I were lying brats, making up stories against her.

^^ I gave up on trying to get my kids to put away their clean clothes. If they do it, everything is just going to be shoved in drawers and wrinkled to the point that I'll have to iron something at 6am in a hurry for them. I just put it all away myself now, it takes ten minutes and it makes things so much easier. They know how to do it, they can do it, I've seen them do it before. However, they just want to get it out of the way right then. No patience, not even a minute and a half of patience.

Yep, I'm one of those moms who hardly ever gives chores lol. I'm fussy about stuff and I don't want to constantly fuss at them over things that don't matter that much to most people. So yeah, it's just easier if I do it.

The girls do help out a lot around the house if I'm sick. I'm glad of that.

two faced people are usually like this they have a face to show to the public
and another darker face at home.
my mom used to forbade me to talk with people least i dont blurt out the stuff she used to do with me
i remember once i told my aunt how she made me clean the entire floor when i was terribly sick
she yelled at me when my aunt left.

i dont give any chore to my boy also i have to keep telling him to do it.
its better to do it myself
but i remember when i was his age i used to do all my chores on my own

I just wanted to chime in that the children of Narcissists not being believed about the parent's behavior is a HALLMARK of the condition. Most people are never diagnosed with NPD, because they are very manipulative, very bright and are clever liars. They will never behave the way around other people as they do in private, especially around their children.

My mom is not diagnosed (no surprise), but almost certainly has NPD. She's a textbook case. Of course, I'll never forget the time I called her while I was at work to ask a question, and learned that she was at a convenience shop right next door to my workplace. I asked if she could bring me something to eat, and offered to pay. She threw a huge fit on the phone, saying it would be a huge inconvenience for her and why hadn't I planned to bring something to eat, blah blah blah. Anyway, she finally agreed to bring the food, with the stipulation I pay for it. When she arrived, she walked up to the desk where I was standing with my co-worker, huge smile on her face, and said: "Look, sweetie, I was out running errands and thought to bring you something to eat!" - she then refused to take my money!! !!

After she left, my co-worker, who had heard my nightmare stories about my mother, turned to me and said: "She seems really nice and thoughtful."

Yup, that's what it is like living with a narcissist. YOU will always be the crazy one...not them.

I started watching Mommie Dearest once, a few months ago, but it was too traumatic to me as it brought back memories and so I stopped watching it.

they always get away with it.
clever manipulators
but their children know them too well

I have this movie and I enjoyed it. I was actually researching about it last week and I do believe that Joan Crawford had issues and mental problems but I also think that Christina also exaggerated how she portrayed her mom and well as Faye Dunaway's performance on the movie. I mean, I can understand that Christina would be angry and upset by why make your life all about the whole abuse thing, why write a book and produce a movie? Wouldn't you want to forget about it? I can understand maybe telling the media in an interview but it just seems like she wanted to feed off of her mother's fame by writing a book. You can tell that she's an angry, bitter person who will never forgive what her mother did to her. Also, she's about to release her book again with more chapters. Obviously a large part of this has to do with money and feeding off of her mom's fame.

I heard that Christina and Christopher weren't angels either. Christopher stole a car when he was a teen and Christina was very spoiled with a loud mouth. That doesn't mean you should abuse your child, I'm just saying that there's more to this story then most people probably think.

like i said earlier even the movie about Enid Blyton was written by her abused daughter.
even that would look like a case of daughter using mothers fame or daughter exposing real side of her mother.

well there were and are lot of NPD mom's out there.