ABSTRACT
This chapter explores women’s specific struggles in the fulfilment of the function of mothering after having been the receptacle of much early abuse, at times going back many generations. The long-term consequences can in the first instance lead to acts of self-harm such as eating disorders, substance abuse, self-cutting, and self-burning. Later on these can be superseded by sadomasochistic relationships with violent men, whose attacks might come to represent the women’s own self-hatred towards their female bodies. Women can perceive their children as extensions of their own bodies, at times, like “part-objects” with a fetishist quality. They oscillate between seeing their children either as their healthy part or as undervalued mirror images of themselves. Evaluation of maternal abilities by placing so much attention on care puts considerable pressure on both mother and her “satellite” baby. The chapter demonstrates the existence of the theoretical speculations by presenting the case of a woman whose early life and pattern of relationships.
