Desiring Relation: Mothers' and Children's Agency, Subjectivity, and Time—Commentary on Daphne de Marneffe's Maternal Desire

Abstract

Daphne de Marneffe (2004) has enriched our theoretical understanding of maternal desire as fundamentally a desire to relate to or “be with” (p. xi) one's child. This view can enable consideration of children's subjectivity and agency through thinking about the intersections of mothers' and children's desires and subjectivities. Contemplating the meanings of maternal desire necessitates attending to multiple practices of mothering in a range of relational contexts. Finally, there is value in considering maternal presence and time in conjunction with children's sense of time and the present in order to imagine a relational time that both mothers and children construct.

Notes

¹Winnicott (1965) famously claimed,“‘There is no such thing as an infant,’ meaning, of course, that whenever one finds an infant one finds maternal care, and without maternal care there would be no infant” (p. 39).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Conrad

Rachel Conrad, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology and Childhood Studies at Hampshire College.