Hostage parent. Fault and responsible concern

Journal title INTERAZIONI
Author/s Mercedes Lugones
Publishing Year 2012 Issue 2012/1 Language Italian
Pages 12 P. 30-41 File size 383 KB
DOI 10.3280/INT2012-001003
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Through the "hostage parent" figure, the Author wishes to seize a phenomenon present in western societies and work with it from a psychoanalytical point of view. This phenomenon is related to the powerlessness of parents and, in the greater scheme, of adults, in dealing with younger generations. The expression "hostage parent" denotes both an internal condition of the parents and a shared unconscious fantasy on the quality and the dynamics of parent-child bonds. The "hostage parent" figure stresses the fact, detected during clinical work, that the parent who renounces his function with his children becomes hostage to feelings of guilt which, in turn, increase his Super-Ego sadism. One of the main matters the Author deals with is the psychoanalytic work with parents, to create an opening towards reparation opportunities and a process of self-appropriation.

Keywords: Sadistic Super-Ego, Ideal-Ego, Ego Ideal, "concern", psychic responsibility.

Mercedes Lugones, Genitore ostaggio. Colpa e preoccupazione responsabile in "INTERAZIONI" 1/2012, pp 30-41, DOI: 10.3280/INT2012-001003