Maternal subjectivity in mothering a child with a disability: A psychoanalytical perspective

abstract

This focus offers a psychoanalytical understanding of the maternal subjectivities of mothers of children with a disability. The deficit assumptions and apparent splits in the existing literature on disability in general, and on mothers’ experiences of raising a disabled child, will be discussed. Specificities of this maternal subjectivity include mothers’ engagement in unconscious defence mechanisms, including part-object relating (splitting), minimisation, denial, as well as engaging in compensatory and reparative impulses in order to manage the intense emotions of this mothering experience. Mothers of disabled children are forced to confront and tolerate their own preconceived notions and uncomfortable feelings of disability that they have introjected from society's deficit view of disability. Once women have a baby that belongs to the ‘outgroup’ of society, they have to tolerate society's projections of the disavowed aspects of disability. Mothers are left with intense feelings of shame and guilt. They also experience loss for their fantasised ideal object, the non-disabled baby. This is a vastly under-researched area and it is apparent that there is a need for further engagement with the maternal subjectivities of mothers with children with a disability.

Keywords:

• maternal subjectivity
• disability
• psychoanalysis
• motherhood
• disabled children

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clare Harvey

CLARE HARVEY is a Clinical Psychologist, lecturer and researcher in the Psychology Department at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She worked for three years in a London-based Special Needs School. Locally, she has worked in government and private clinical settings, including as Head of the Psychology Department at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital. Clare's research interests are primarily in Disability Studies and Motherhood. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand, focusing on the maternal subjectivities of mothers when they have a child with a physical disability. Email: [email protected]