Maternity, subjectivation, violence

Starting from some considerations on the social changes undergone by families in the past decades the authors focus on the forms of violence that originate in the couple dynamics and find their expression in the mother-child relationship, aware, however, that violent situations cannot be explained by one single meaning but are determined by Illustrating their clinical experience with a few vignettes, the authors see violence acted by the mother as related to "faults" in her subjectivation with a partial and/or temporary disorganization of psy- chic reality. Violence, in fact, seems to emerge from a sense of serious threat to her internal setup and represents an effort at recovering her threatened subjectivity. The quality of the couple relation and the function of the partner/father are also examined. This function can be highly significant for the evolution of the difficulties due to father’s holding capacity and his ability to act as a third. The authors describe the psychological context that favours violence, starting from the conditions where it emerges, and distinguish these conditions from the modes of organization of the expression of violence (Jeammet, 2006).

Keywords: Maternity, subjectivation, violence

Daniela Lucarelli, Gabriela Tavazza, Maternità, soggettivazione, violenza in "INTERAZIONI" 2/2010, pp 53-65, DOI: 10.3280/INT2010-002006