| Abstract: | Discusses the deconstructive shift in the conception of mothers and mothering from a unitary category of women in a biological relationship with their offspring to a more fluid constellation of active maternal relations. The author suggests a new parenting subject that transcends gender, constructed through the work of intersubjective dyads. Two questions are addressed: (1) How might the representation of such maternal relationships and their internalization be envisioned? (2) How might a changing conception of internalized maternal representations affect psychoanalytic practice? With reference to J. Bowlby's (1980) concept of internal working models of attachment, and to more recent infant research, the concept of maternal functions (specifically, functions of security, regulation, and recognition) is introduced as central to the mothering relation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
