Mothering the other: psychoanalytic understandings of becoming a mother to a second child
Book chapter
Frost, N. 2014. Mothering the other: psychoanalytic understandings of becoming a mother to a second child. in: Büskens, P. (ed.) Mothering and Psychoanalysis: Clinical, Sociological and Feminist Perspectives Demeter Press.
Chapter title | Mothering the other: psychoanalytic understandings of becoming a mother to a second child |
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Authors | Frost, N. |
Abstract | Psychoanalysis has been simultaneously accused of denigrating and idealising motherhood. Classic psychoanalysts such as Winnicott and Klein describe an infantocentric perspective of the mother-child bond that includes instinctual maternal preoccupation and a need for mothers to contain the rage directed towards them by their infant. Mothers’ failure to acquire or cope with these experiences is portrayed as harmful to the healthy development of the child. Contemporary feminist psychoanalysts have challenged this perception of the relationship. Intersubjectivity (Benjamin, 1995) and maternal ambivalence (Parker, 2005) are proposed as more balanced ways of understanding motherhood. Mothers are regarded as separate centres of being and mutual recognition of this as important to the child’s development. However such proposals still contain inherent assumptions of an exclusive one child-one mother relationship. Questions of how psychoanalytic thinking can explain how mothers negotiate and manage their maternal relationship when they have a second or subsequent child are raised. |
Research Group | Applied Health Psychology group |
Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research group | |
Book title | Mothering and Psychoanalysis: Clinical, Sociological and Feminist Perspectives |
Editors | Büskens, P. |
Publisher | Demeter Press |
ISBN | |
Hardcover | 9781927335260 |
Publication dates | |
01 Jul 2014 | |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 19 Mar 2013 |
Output status | Published |
Web address (URL) | http://demeterpress.org/books/mothering-and-psychoanalysis-clinical-sociological-and-feminist-perspectives/ |
Language | English |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/83yq5
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