Mothers' Ambivalence With Their Babies and Toddlers

Manifestations of Conflicts With Aggression

Bibliographic Data

ID8332011
AuthorsLeon Hoffman (0000-0001-7466-5513, Training and Supervising Analyst, New York Psychoanalytic Institute, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume51
Issue4
Pages1219-1240
Publication date2003-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00030651030510040901
PMID14713012
OpenAlexW1983392711
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited23

In this paper the author continues his study of conflicts over aggression in women, discussing the implications for contemporary theories of feminine psychology of observations of mothers in parent/child groups with their infants and toddlers. Many mothers experience conflicts over aggression (both in themselves and in their children) and become intolerant of their ambivalence toward their children. The author suggests that this observation provides an avenue that allows an integration of psychoanalytic ideas about maternity and childrearing with psychoanalytic understandings of women's conflicts about achievement in the social realm outside the home. In both roles, difficulties mastering conflicts with aggression may cause women to struggle profoundly, and to experience problems, in successfully negotiating their important life goals, whether the goals refer to their roles as effective mothers or their roles as effective individuals in the social sphere outside the home. Some women may demonstrate these difficulties in one sphere or the other, some in both, and others in neither. The author suggests on the one hand that we need to eliminate the concept of normality when considering the activities of women, and on the other hand that we need to normalize the omnipresence of ambivalence in the psychology of women

Aggression · Ambivalence · Developmental psychology · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Realm · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Child Welfare and Adoption · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology