ABSTRACT
I have heard this phrase, "Listen to my words," spoken over and over by a friend of mine to her two young children whenever they are slipping out of control, into the knots of anger, desire, and anxiety in which children (as well as grownups) are often entangled. My friend, the mother, puts her hands softly and firmly on her child's shoulders and says, Listen to my words. Sometimes-not always of course-it works. The child quiets down, and the situation can be clarified or diffused. Often, but in particular with mothers, we don't listen to what is being said to us, but, rather, in each new generation with new discourses, we anticipate and impose meanings.
