A Protective Shield and Mistrust of Romantic Love: Some Psychological Consequences to Bernard Shaw from the Family Ménage à Trois

ABSTRACT:Bernard Shaw always insisted as “innocent” the relationship in his childhood family that consisted of his mother, Bessie; her voice teacher, Vandeleur Lee; and his father, George Carr Shaw, while simultaneously referring to it as a ménage à trois. That family triad and the secrets it appeared to hold interfered with the development of the trust he would later need in a committed romantic relationship. How it did so and how Shaw protected himself from romantic betrayal are explored in this essay. His relationship with May Morris and his affair with Molly Tompkins help further elucidate what had affected him.