Constructing and Addressing the 'Ordinary Devoted Mother
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4493546 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A Karpf, Adam R Karpf (0000-0002-0866-0666, London Metropolitan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 78 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 82-106 |
| Publication date | 2014-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History Workshop Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/hwj/dbt037 |
| OpenAlex | W2020063933 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 7 |
Donald Winnicott's fifty BBC radio talks, broadcast between 1943 and 1962, constitute the heart of his oeuvre and were later published in the bestselling book, ‘The Child, the Family and the Outside World’. This article argues that, although commentators have routinely alluded to the broadcast origins of these talks, the importance of their institutional context is commonly effaced, as a result dehistoricizing them. The article seeks to recover the conditions of production of the talks as ‘spoken word’, emphasizing Winnicott's formidable linguistic skills, his understanding of register and his sensitivity to listeners – qualities developed under the formative influence of Winnicott's two producers, Janet Quigley and Isa Benzie. Contemporary attempts by the BBC to popularize psychoanalysis met with significant resistance and criticism within the Corporation but Winnicott avoided such controversy, it is argued here, because of the way he was positioned in the BBC, and the role he played in wartime British society. The article places Winnicott among other popularizers of psychoanalytic ideas at the time, such as Susan Isaacs, John Bowlby and Ruth Thomas, and contends that, while Winnicott's idealization of motherhood has been rightly criticized, his broadcasts also conveyed a powerful sense of motherhood as a lived experience.
Adventure · Art · Art history · Context (archaeology) · Criticism · Idealization · Literature · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Resistance (ecology) · Sociology · Autobiographical and Biographical Writing · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Psychology
Comunicação a Distância Na Psicanálise, Ontem E Hoje
From Interiority to Intimacy
The Distance Cure
The Role of Janet Quigley, Isa Benzie and Other Female BBC Producers in Shaping Winnicott’s Creative Process and Broadcasting Legacy
“A Claim to Be Heard”
Umwelt-Sein. Mutterschaft, Entwicklung und Psychologie, 1930–1990
Woman’s Hour or Mother’s Hour”
Who the Hell Are Ordinary People?’ Ordinariness as a Category of Historical Analysis
Drawing aside the curtain’
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,82 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2025 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |