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In this book the bestselling author and psychoanalyst Massimo Recalcati offers a fundamental re-examination of what 'being a mother' means today, in a world where new social and sexual freedoms mean that motherhood is no longer the sole destiny of women. Questioning the belief that a mother's love is natural and unconditional, he paints a more complex and troubling picture of the mother-child relationship, observing that mothers may even resent their children as a result of unresolved conflicts between different dimensions of love. The mother's hands not only nurture but can also potentially harm. Recalcati argues that it is precisely in these competing demands that motherhood fulfils its function: only if the mother is 'not-all-mother' can a child experience the absence that enables it to access the symbolic and cultural world.
Recalcati cuts through conventional wisdom to offer a fresh perspective on the changing nature of motherhood today. An international bestseller, this book will appeal to a wide general readership, as well as to students and scholars of gender studies, psychoanalysis and related disciplines.
Sommario
Introduction Notes
1 The Mother's Desire The Hands
The Wait
The Face
Lalangue
The Breast
Absence
Desire
Paranoia
The Name
Care
Transcendence
Notes
2 The Mother's Shadow The Two Mothers and Solomon's Ruling
Wanting to Have a Child
Maternal Anxiety
The Child as Object
The Mother's Refusal
'Primary Perversion'
The Mother's Enjoyment
Ange Duroc
The Mother-as-Crocodile
The Narcissistic Mother
A Fugitive Mother
The Medea Complex
Mommy
Notes
3 The Mother's Inheritance Maternal Power
The Maternal Sentence
Maternal Inheritance
The Dead Mother
Mother and Daughter
Failure of Inheritance
Ravage
Violence and Resignation
The Mother's Solitude
A Successful Inheritance
Notes
Epilogue
Info autore
Massimo Recalcati is a psychoanalyst and author who teaches at the universities of Pavia and Verona.
Riassunto
In this book the bestselling author and psychoanalyst Massimo Recalcati offers a fundamental re-examination of what 'being a mother' means today, in a world where new social and sexual freedoms mean that motherhood is no longer the sole destiny of women. Questioning the belief that a mother's love is natural and unconditional, he paints a more complex and troubling picture of the mother-child relationship, observing that mothers may even resent their children as a result of unresolved conflicts between different dimensions of love. The mother's hands not only nurture but can also potentially harm. Recalcati argues that it is precisely in these competing demands that motherhood fulfils its function: only if the mother is 'not-all-mother' can a child experience the absence that enables it to access the symbolic and cultural world.
Recalcati cuts through conventional wisdom to offer a fresh perspective on the changing nature of motherhood today. An international bestseller, this book will appeal to a wide general readership, as well as to students and scholars of gender studies, psychoanalysis and related disciplines.
Relazione
'This book from one of Italy's most popular public intellectuals turns our conventional understanding of motherly love on its head, encouraging a complete rethink of what motherhood means today. Written with Recalcati's typical flair and sagacity, it will be of interest to a very wide readership.'
Dany Nobus, Brunel University, London
'In this poetic and thought-provoking book, Massimo Recalcati explores the many images of the mother to be found in both psychoanalysis and popular culture, urging a questioning of the prejudices and clichés that are so often taken for granted. Without downplaying the complexity and ambivalences of the mother-child relation, he emphasises the positive, life-giving transmission of the mother, and shows us with clarity and elegance the many levels at which this operates.'
Darian Leader, Psychoanalyst, Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research
