“The one who takes care is the mother”: Legal mediators’ child care imaginary

Abstract

Objective Investigate child care collective imaginaries, a focus justified by the social and family transformations resulting from the massive insertion of women into the labor market. Method The study is organized methodologically from the perspective of concrete psychoanalytic psychology, articulating the use of the psychoanalytic method with relational theorizations. The research involves collective psychological interviews, in which 12 judicial mediators were interviewed through the Thematic Drawing and Story Procedure. Results The psychoanalytical consideration of the material allowed the interpretative production of four affective–emotional meaning fields. Conclusion The general picture indicates that a conservative imaginary prevails in which the best child care is provided by the biological mother in the contexts of both the nuclear family and the matrifocal family while also maintaining a friendly bond with the father.