Even more telling, however, was my mother's tendency to finish things for me before I had a chance to complete them myself. I would start some task, working slowly through it, as I always did, and suddenly my mother would appear, and in a few quick strokes, either of mind or hand, she would finish it for me. Even though done with a helpful, loving intention, such gestures powerfully reinforced my sense of myself as slow and inept and caused me to doubt my ability to do things, to carry through, to complete even the simplest tasks. The net effect was corrosive, leaving me feeling undermined and
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