Prophecy Coles

Prophecy Coles trained as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist but is now retired. She has written many articles on sibling relationships, eating disorders and sexuality and has lectured across the world.

She also written several books, including The Importance of Sibling Relationships in Psychoanalysis (Karnac. 2003) Sibling Relationships (edited) (Karnac. 2006) The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past (Karnac. 2011) The Shadow of the Second Mother (Routledge. 2015) Psychoanalytic & Psychotherapeutic Perspectives on Stepfamilies & Stepparenting (Routledge. 2017)

Over the last thirty years the author has been exploring some of the hidden relationships that lie within most families. The enduring and formative relationships with siblings; the impact of family history upon present day families; the early relationships that may have been made with nannies and nurses, the ‘second mother’.

Her most recent book tackles the trauma of divorce and the subsequent relationships children and stepparents have to make. The backdrop that has informed all her research is the belief that we carry the legacy of our ancestral history, and she has drawn on myths and fairy tales and literature to illustrate the way culture and our individual imagination inform our beliefs and our thinking.