An unconscious paradigm informing psychosocial structuring of mothers is explored: the initial placental interchange of nutrients and waste between pregnant woman and foetus, serves as metaphor/model for postnatal interaction, when a mother contains and metabolizes her preverbal infant `s unbearable anxieties, returning them in tolerable form. Unconscious conflation of placental process with maternal functioning perpetuates female primary care, privileging biological mothers. On a societal level, unconscious residues of universal early transactions with female primary caregivers, promote women as nurturing/waste-disposing `placental containers'. This projection has wider cultural manifestations in the simultaneous idealization of mothers and devaluation of both women and maternal function. Creative inner space, attainable by internalizing the primary caregiver-as-container is confounded with female procreative space resulting in women being exploited as repositories for containment of male cultural productivity and waste.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bion, W.R.
(1962) Learning from Experience. London: Maresfield Reprints.
2.
Bion, W.R.
(1967) Second Thoughts. London: Maresfield Reprints.
3.
Bowlby, J.
(1958) `The Nature of the Child's Tie to His Mother', International Journal of Psycho-Analysis39: 350-373.
4.
Buber, M.
(1958) I and Thou. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.
5.
Chasseguet-Smirgel, J.
(1986) Sexuality and Mind: The Role of the Father and the Mother in the Psyche. London: Karnac Books.
6.
Chodorow, N.J.
and Contratto, S. (1989) `The Fantasy of the Perfect Mother', in N.J. Chodorow, Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory. Cambridge: Blackwells.
7.
Daws, D.
(1985) `Standing Next to the Weighing Scales', Journal of Child PsychotherapyII: 77-85.
8.
Erikson, E.H.
(1964) `Womanhood and the Inner Space', in R.J. Lifton (ed.) The Woman in America. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
9.
Ferenczi, S.
(1952) `Stages in the Development of the Sense of Reality', in First Contributions to Psycho-Analysis, chapter 8. London: Maresfield Reprints.
10.
Ferenczi, S.
(1955) `The Unwelcome Child and His Death Instinct', in Final Contributions to the Problems and Methods of Psycho-Analysis, chapter 9, London: Maresfield Reprints.
11.
Greenson, R.
(1968) `Dis-identifying from Mother-Its Special Importance for the Boy', International Journal of Psycho-Analysis49: 370.
12.
Herzog, J.M.
(1982) `Patterns of Expectant Fatherhood: A Study of the Fathers of a Group of Premature Infants', in S.H. Cath, A.R. Gurwitt and J.M. Ross (eds) Father and Child. Boston, MA: Little and Brown.
13.
Kestenberg, J.
(1968) `Outside and Inside, Male and Female', Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association16: 457-520.
14.
Klaus, M.
and Kennel, J. (1983) Bonding: The Beginnings of Parent-Infant Attachment. New York: Mosby Medical Library.
15.
Klein, M.
(1946) `Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms', in Envy and Gratitude and Other Works, chapter 1. London: Hogarth Press, 1984.
16.
Klein, M.
(1952) `Some Theoretical Conclusions Regarding the Emotional Life of the Infant', chapter 6 in Envy and Gratitude and Other Works. London: Hogarth Press, 1984.
17.
Macfarlane, A.
(1978) The Psychology of Childbirth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
18.
Mead, M.
(1949) Male and Female: A Study of the Sexes in a Changing World. London: Victor Gollancz.
19.
Menzies, I.E.P.
(1974) `Thoughts of the Maternal Role in Contemporary Society', Journal of Child Psychotherapy4: 5-14.
20.
Neumann, E.
(1963) The Great Mother. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
21.
Oakley, A.
(1976) `Wisewoman and Medicine Man: Changes in the Management of Childbirth', in A. Oakley and J. Mitchell (eds) The Rights and Wrongs of Women. London: Pelican.
22.
Pruett, K.D.
(1983) `Infants and Primary Nurturing Fathers', Psychoanalytic Study of the Child38: 257-277.
23.
Raphael-Leff, J.
(1984a) `Myths and Modes of Motherhood', British Journal of Psychotherapy1: 6-30.
24.
Raphael-Leff, J.
(1984b) `Fears and Fantasies of Childbirth', Journal of Pre-natal and Peri-natal Psychology1: 14-18.
25.
Raphael-Leff, J.
(1985a) `Facilitators and Regulators: Vulnerability to Postnatal Disturbances', Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology4: 151-168.
26.
Raphael-Leff, J.
(1985b) `Facilitators and Regulators: Participators and Renouncers: Mothers' and Fathers' Orientations towards Pregnancy and Parenthood', Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology4: 169-184.
27.
Raphael-Leff, J.
(1986) `Facilitators and Regulators: Conscious and Unconscious Processes in Pregnancy and Early Motherhood', British Journal of Medical Psychology59: 43-55.
28.
Raphael-Leff, J.
(1989) `Where the Wild Things Are', International Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Studies1: 79-89.
29.
Raphael-Leff, J.
(1991) Psychological Processes. London: Chapman Hall; New York: Routledge.
30.
Robson, K.M.
and Kumar, R. (1980) `Delayed Onset of Maternal Affection after Child-birth', British Journal of Psychiatry136: 347-353.
31.
Sandler, J.
(1976) `Countertransference and Role-responsiveness', International Review of Psycho-Analysis3: 43-48.
32.
Stern, D.
(1985) The Interpersonal World of the Infant: A View from Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology. New York: Basic Books.
33.
Winnicott, D.W.
(1956) `Primary Maternal Preoccupation', chapter 26 in Through Paediatrics to Psycho-Analysis. London: Hogarth Press, 1982.
34.
Winnicott, D.W.
(1960) `Ego Distortion in Terms of True and False Self', chapter 12 in The Maturational Process and the Facilitating Environment. London: Hogarth Press, 1965.
35.
Winnicott, D.W.
(1963) `The Development of the Capacity for Concern', chapter 6 in The Maturational Process and the Facilitating Environment. London: Hogarth Press, 1965.
36.
Winnicott, D.W.
(1935) `The Manic Defence', in Through Paediatrics to Psycho-Analysis, chapter 11. London: Hogarth Press, 1982.
37.
Yogman, M.W.
(1984) `The Father's Role with Preterm and Fullterm Infants', in D. Call, E. Galenson and R.L. Tyson (eds) Frontiers of Infant Psychiatry. New York: Basic Books.
