ABSTRACT
The current psychoanalytic literature on pregnancy and motherhood reflects an expanding and complex field. Pregnancy and motherhood are developmental experiences that may occur as early as adolescence and continue into later adult life. This chapter also includes articles on typical developmental problems and challenges related to pregnancy and the mothering experience. It features articles on such subjects as role conflicts, elective abortion, infanticidal conflicts, miscarriage, pseudocyesis, and infertility. In The Psychology of Women, Helene Deutsch richly and systematically reviews topics, including the sex act, motherhood, problems with conception, pregnancy, abortion, delivery, lactation, first mother-infant relations, the mother-child relationship, adoption, being a stepmother, and the climacterium. Deutsch differentiates motherhood from motherliness. Motherhood is the psycho biosocial relatedness of the mother to the child, whereas motherliness is the characterological capacity of a woman to relate to a child’s helplessness.
