BEARING AND TRANSFORMING SHAME—THOUGHTS ON MATERNAL ETHICS: A DISCUSSION OF KATHY MARKS’ “IN THE NICK OF TIME: MOTHERHOOD AND THE ANALYTIC PAIR”

Abstract

This discussion of Dr. Kathy Marks’s paper, In the Nick of Time: Motherhood and the Analytic Pair, centers on a patient’s need to probe the analyst’s subjectivity. Clinical processes involving the therapeutic dyad mutually bearing and transforming shame are described. The place of motherhood (or non-motherhood) within our western culture and within psychoanalysis is explored. The very nature of a maternal sensibility is described. I argue that through writing the paper, Marks embarked on a journey to discover and consolidate her own maternal identity.

Keywords:

• motherhood
• probing analyst’s subjectivity
• knowing and being known
• shame
• maternal ethics

Notes

¹ Beebe’s findings are in line with a number of developmental studies that found correlations between infants identified as disorganized in their attachment relationship to their mothers and a history of maltreatment and/or neglect (Lyons-Ruth et al., 2013; Sroufe, Egeland, Carlson, & Collins, 2005).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth M. Carr

Elizabeth M. Carr, APRN, MSN, BC, serves on the faculty of the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy + Psychoanalysis and in the Department of Psychiatry Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. She Co-Chairs the Teaching Interest Group and Serves on the Council at IAPSP. She is Associate Editor for Psychoanalytic Inquiry.