The Maternal Lineage: Identification, Desire and Transgenerational Issues

by Mariotti,Paola; Mariotti,Paola

• ISBN13: 9780415681650
• ISBN10: 0415681650
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-03-21
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Why do women want to have children? How does one 'learn' to be a mother? Does having babies have anything to do with sex? At a time when mothers are bombarded by prescriptive and contradicting advice on how to behave with their children, The Maternal Lineage highlights various psychological aspects of the mothering experience. International contributors provide clinical examples of frequent and challenging situations that have received scarce attention in psychoanalysis, such as issues of neglect and psychical abuse. The transgenerational repetition from mother to daughter of distressing mothering patterns is evident throughout the book, and may seem inevitable. However, clinical examples and theoretical research indicate that, when the support of partner and friends is not enough, the cycle can be brought to an end if the mother receives psychoanalytic-informed professional help. The Maternal Lineageis divided into four parts: An Introduction including a review of the literature focusing on the mother-daughter relationship Pregnancy and very early issues Subfertility and its effects on a woman's psyche The psychological aspects of major mothering problems: miscarriages, post-natal depression, adolescent motherhood. This timely book will be of value to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and health professionals obstetricians, psychiatrists, midwives and social workers.

Author Biography

Paola Mariotti is a fellow of the British Psychoanalyst Society. She is a psychoanalyst in private practice. She was supervisor of a Unit in an NHS Hospital working with patients suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder and has lectured and published on sexuality, reproductive issues and maternity extensively.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. xiii
Acknowledgements	p. xvii
General Introduction	p. 1
Mothering in body and mind	p. 45
Primary maternal preoccupation	p. 59
Peaceful islands and dangerous jungles - pregnancy: opportunity or impediment. A psychoanalyst's view	p. 67
Shame and maternal ambivalence	p. 85
The pregnant mother and the body image of the daughter	p. 113
On motherhood	p. 139
Subfertility and reproductive technologies	p. 159
The 'Medea fantasy': an unconscious determinant of psychogenic sterility	p. 169
The baby makers: conscious and unconscious psychological reactions to infertility and 'baby-making'ùan in-depth single case study	p. 205
Infertility in the age of technology	p. 231
When not all goes well	p. 255
Pregnancy, miscarriage and abortion: a psychoanalytic perspective	p. 267
Postpartum depression and symbiotic illusion	p. 279
Keeping envy in mind: the vicissitudes of envy in adolescent motherhood	p. 306
"What is genuine maternal love?" Clinical considerations and technique in psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy	p. 323
Infant-parent psychotherapy on behalf of a child in a critical nutritional state	p. 352
Bodies across generations and cycles of abuse	p. 381
Index	p. 402
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