Christina Crawford: A Mother's Life Of Her Mother

Christina contends that she was a victim of child abuse during her mother's battle with alcoholism, including sexual abuse that occurred at the hands of one of the women that worked for her mother.

The book suggests that Crawford was more concerned about her motion picture career than the well-being of her four children, and suggests she may have adopted them for publicity purposes.

Besides a long list of affairs with men - whom Christina was required to call "uncle", she suggested that her mother was involved in liaisons with other women.

Christina recounts several evenings where Crawford's behavior was unbalanced, and at least one encounter with her mother where Crawford physically attacked her. Among some of the incidents that Christina recounts in the book is a tirade that she alleges occurred when her mother was looking in Christina's closet. Crawford discovered some of Christina's clothes hanging on wire hangers, instead of higher-quality hangers, and allegedly launched into a tirade that has become known as the infamous "No wire hangers" moment.

For example, one moment her mother was buying her extravagant party dresses, and the next moment spanking her so hard with a hairbrush that it broke in two. It was also stated that the agency that sent hired help quit sending help because the patient was so difficult to work for. There was no sign of the collateral sources exhibiting any psychological disorders that may have exacerbated the patient’s problems. Personality testing has indicated that the patient is an extroverted individual, while the intelligence testing had indicated that the patient was a kinetic