Children Born Into Loss
Some Developmental Consequences of Homelessness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6109889 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ann G Smolen (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 250-257 |
| Publication date | 2003-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychoanalysis Culture & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1088-0763 • E-ISSN: 1543-3390 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/psy.2003.0045 |
| OpenAlex | W2054561821 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 2 |
How can one lose what one never had? It is a paradox. Winnicott appealed to his readers to be comfortable with paradox, to refrain from developing stagnant solutions. He asks us to tolerate and accept the unsolvable. Can a child be born into loss? It may be argued that an infant may be born into profound deprivation but that this is not a loss felt or experienced by the infant. It may also be argued that if the infant experiences loss it is not her own loss she feels but the unresolved losses of her mother, and her mother's mother before her. I will argue that many children do experience personal loss at birth or within hours after birth. These children are born onto the streets of our inner cities. Their cribs are broken down strollers. They may find refuge in an over-crowded rundown apartment one night, and the next night their shelter is a doorway hidden in an alley; the following night home is an abandoned car. From the beginning of life these babies encounter an unbearable cycle of nowhere to go, no place to call home, no safe sanctuary, only the feeling of "falling forever" (Winnicott 86)
Alley · Developmental psychology · Feeling · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · History · Psychology · Social Psychology · Themes in Literature Analysis
| Citations per year | 0.14 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2023 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |