Maternal Ambivalence in a Group Analytic Setting

Christie, George L.; Correia, Anna Karlla Sampaio

doi:10.1111/j.1752-0118.1987.tb00973.x

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 3 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…It was providing a space for talking about motherhood in an environment of safety and mutual support, helping the mothers to understand their role better in relation to their children, but also to support the gradual growth of inner resources, confidence and self‐esteem in the women themselves. Christie and Correia (1987) demonstrate how group work with mothers can help mothers free their hostility that is often directed towards the staff and institutions in which they are receiving help, and locate the more hidden pain of guilt about destructive wishes towards their children. Working through this guilt allows them to contact the other side of their repressed ambivalence, and reconnect with the warmth, care and reparative impulses that they also feel towards their children (Christie & Correia 1987, p. 214).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Christie and Correia (1987) demonstrate how group work with mothers can help mothers free their hostility that is often directed towards the staff and institutions in which they are receiving help, and locate the more hidden pain of guilt about destructive wishes towards their children. Working through this guilt allows them to contact the other side of their repressed ambivalence, and reconnect with the warmth, care and reparative impulses that they also feel towards their children (Christie & Correia 1987, p. 214). The mothers attending the first stage of the group had young children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mother Courage: Reflections on Maternal Resilience

Baraitser

Noack

2006

Brit J Psychotherapy

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This paper attempts to develop a psychoanalytic perspective on maternal resilience. It argues that notions of resilience have been largely focused on the development of resilience in children, with the mother being viewed as a key figure in understanding its success or failure. However, the development of maternal resilience -the capacity for mothers to survive the vicissitudes of the parenting experience itself -has received less attention, occluding an important aspect of maternal subjectivity. Drawing on recent work on maternal ambivalence, this paper explores the relation between ambivalence and resilience, and provides clinical material from a two-year slow-open analytic group for mothers at the Maya Centre to illustrate our view that maternal resilience may usefully describe the aspect of ambivalence that entails bearing and accepting ourselves as mothers as well as our ambivalent feelings about our children.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mother Courage: Reflections on Maternal Resilience

Baraitser

Noack

2006

Brit J Psychotherapy

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“…He went on to list eighteen reasons why a mother might hate her baby, for example, 'if she fails him at the start she knows he will pay her out for ever' (Winnicott, 1994, p.355). By being a 'good enough' mother and being aware of her 'destructive impulses' she may have towards her infant will enable the mother to tolerate any feelings of hate (Christie & Correia, 1987).…”

Section: Maternal Ambivalencementioning

confidence: 99%

An interpretative phenomenological analysis of mothers’ negative experiences and emotions during early motherhood

Collins¹

2021

bpscpr

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Contemporary ideologies surrounding motherhood do not appear to reflect the experiences of many women. Motherhood is often idealised as a joyful experience, however a large proportion of women experience psychological distress, often receiving a diagnosis of postnatal depression. Current psychiatric systems may not adequately represent mothers’ experiences or reflect the range and complexity of emotions experienced. Most psychological research explores mothers’ emotions through the lens of a medical model, with a focus on depression; the exploration of emotions beyond depression has been under-researched. This study explored the range of emotions mothers experience during early motherhood. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six women who experienced post-natal distress; data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results showed a conflict between the mothers’ aspired and idyllic representations of motherhood and their lived experiences; three themes were identified: when idyllic notions of motherhood are not realised; when motherhood is not instinctive; and when prioritising childcare is not easy. Mothers who were unable to live up to the identified notions of motherhood, experienced emotional distress, from resentment and guilt, to feeling broken and insecure. The amalgamation of emotions experienced created a complex emotional landscape they had to negotiate, and their experiences were not represented in the psychiatric categorical systems; they did not identify with having postnatal depression and were left unsupported. This study explored ways counselling psychologists could offer support to this sub-clinical group and viewing their experiences as a normal response to motherhood as opposed to pathologising them.

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“…Other examples reveal that “in the very anguish of maternal ambivalence itself a fruitfulness for mothers and children resides” (Parker , 6). Two therapists who led a group of mothers in Australia recorded that every time the mothers came into contact “with guilt over deeply ambivalent feelings” they begin to demonstrate new initiatives and resourcefulness, and an increased capacity to think and act (Christie and Correia ). Just as in the case of the Bosnian rape survivors, these studies show that where motherhood is concerned, “the conflict between love and hate actually spurs mothers on to struggle to understand their baby,” revealing that ambivalence “can promote thought” and leading researchers to conclude that “the capacity to think about the baby and child is arguably the single most important aspect of mothering” (Parker , 7).…”

Section: Bosnian Rape Survivors: the Heart Of Maternal Ambivalence Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mother Love, Maternal Ambivalence, and the Possibility of Empowered Mothering

Takševa¹

2017

Hypatia

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Dominant cultural ideologies of motherhood define the nature of mother love. Recent developments in motherhood studies, and the work of a small number of feminist philosophers and scholars of motherhood, have challenged the tenets of these ideologies by daring to speak the “unspeakable”: that mother love is often and for all mothers, whether consciously or not, permeated by powerful negative and conflicting emotions termed maternal ambivalence. In this essay, relying on recorded personal narratives by Bosnian women who are raising children born of wartime rape, as well as recent studies on empowered motherhood, my aim is to show that maternal love, like love in any other close relationship, encompasses and assimilates healthy ambivalence, and can inform maternal care in a constructive and positive manner. I argue that the acknowledgment of healthy maternal ambivalence as an integral aspect of mother love involves honoring the mother's subjectivity and validates her personhood, and as such it opens up the possibility of redefining mother love in terms that are empowering to mothers.

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Maternal Ambivalence in a Group Analytic Setting

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Mother Courage: Reflections on Maternal Resilience

Mother Courage: Reflections on Maternal Resilience

An interpretative phenomenological analysis of mothers’ negative experiences and emotions during early motherhood

Mother Love, Maternal Ambivalence, and the Possibility of Empowered Mothering

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