Ladies of the Bedchamber: The Role of the Royal Mistress - Hardcover

Friedman, Dennis

3.14

14 ratings by Goodreads

9780720611601: Ladies of the Bedchamber: The Role of the Royal Mistress

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0720611601 ISBN 13: 9780720611601

Publisher: Peter Owen Ltd, 2003

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Examining the roles played by the mistress and the concubine, this study also sheds light on commercial sex, the ready availability of which possibly protected the sanctity of marriage in the years preceding today's less holy alliances. The book shows how sex addiction cast its shadow over the 20th century—from the accession of King Edward VII in 1901 to his and Mrs. Alice Keppel's great, great grandchildren and to Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles today.

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About the Author:

Dennis Friedman is a psychiatrist and author of innovative studies of phobias, sexual problems and other psychological disorders. Formerly of St Bartholemew's Hospital, London, he is now Medical Director of the Charter Clinic, Chelsea, London.

From Publishers Weekly:

The title of this volume promises a tawdry, gossipy tale, but Friedman instead delivers a psychoanalytic take on five centuries of British royal history, casting the reigns of royals from Henry VIII to Charles, Prince of Wales, in terms of childhood neglect and sex addiction. In workmanlike prose, he chronicles the monarchy's dangerous liaisons: Henry VIII's six marriages ("His long-suppressed emotional needs produced a hunger for sex and power so insatiable that he had difficulty in concentrating on any political issues..."); William IV's violence towards prostitutes (he "probably suffered from what would now be called bipolar mood disorder"); Edward VIII's alliance with Wallis Simpson (he "probably spent most of his adult life looking for the emotional security he lacked as a child"). Readers with a penchant for pop-psychology will appreciate this book, but anyone with a deeper interest in British history-or a desire for a little salacious fun-should probably look elsewhere.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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