Psychoanalytic perspectives of pregnancy: reorganisation of the parents-to-be inner world

Authors

  • Gertraud Diem-Wille

Abstract

I deal with the impact of the pregnancy on the inner world of the parents - the mother and father as a whole person rather than the objects of the child's phantasies - from a psychoanalytic perspective. In the tradition of S. Freud, M. Klein and W. Bion we look at the “inner reality" of the parents and the reorganisation of the inner objects as a conscious and unconscious preparation for parenthood. Their cathexis of the body and archaic images of their mothers' body will influence their image of the “imaginary baby". As case examples, I present narratives of two couples about their experience of pregnancy and parenthood and of an autobiographic report of a mother who had a miscarriage.

Key words:
Pregnancy; Inner world; Parenthood; Psychoanalysis; Containment; Baby; Phantasy; Maternal body; Propagation phantasies; Cathexis of the maternal body

Author Biography

Gertraud Diem-Wille

A.o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gertraud Diem-Wille, Psychoanalytikerin und Lehranalytikerin der Wiener Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung (WPV) und der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung (IPV). Arbeitet in freier Praxis mit Erwachsenen und Kindern. Leitet den Arbeitsschwerpunkt Psychoanalytische Pädagogik an der Interdisziplinären Fakultät für Forschung und Fortbildung an den Universitäten Klagenfurt und Wien. Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen zur Theorie der Psychoanalyse, Eltern-Kleinkind-Therapie und der frühen Jahre der Entwicklung. Letzte Veröffentlichung: Das Kleinkind und seine Eltern: Perspektiven psychoanalytischer Babybeobachtung, Stuttgart 2003

Korrespondenz: A.o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gertraud Diem-Wille, Weinberggasse 1, 1190 Wien, Österreich

Downloads

Published

2004-07-01

How to Cite

Diem-Wille, G. (2004). Psychoanalytic perspectives of pregnancy: reorganisation of the parents-to-be inner world. Psychotherapie-Wissenschaft, (3), 130–139. Retrieved from https://psychotherapie-wissenschaft.info/article/view/388

Issue

No. 3 (2004): Psychotherapie Forum 12/3 (veröffentlicht bei Springer Wien New York)

Section

Original Work

License

This journal provides open access to its content in accordance with the basic premise that the free public availability of research benefits the exchange of knowledge throughout the world.

Authors wishing to publish in this journal agree to the following:

  1. The author/s retain/s the copyrights and consent/s to initial publication of the work in the journal under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, which allows third parties to use the work by citing the name/s of the author/s and this journal as initial publisher (in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 DE-Licence).
  1. The author/s can enter into additional contracts for the non-exclusive distribution (e.g. publish in a collection or book) of the version published in the journal, if the journal is cited as initial publisher.