ABSTRACT
I should like to advance the hypothesis that mothers ask fathers to cocreate a psychological space with them in which it is possible for a child to be himself or herself with some modicum of protection from projections, unconscious conflicts, or unresolved traumatic residua. If uncontained and untitrated, these are likely to prove deleterious and deform a child's development. Such desetayage, or skewing, as described by Braunschweig and Fain (1981), among others, often results from unrecognized strain in the adult-adult relationship. This strain compromises the father's capacity to help his wife to modulate and manage internal stirrings that can interfere with her capacity to see her child and her husband for who they are.
