ABSTRACT
In my work on maternal ambivalence I have, nevertheless, claimed a creative role for manageable maternal ambivalence, suggesting that it is in the very anguish of maternal ambivalence that fruitfulness for mothers and children can reside (Parker 1995). The crucial issue is how a mother manages the anxiety that ambivalence provokes. Here I shall begin by mapping the specifi cities of maternal ambivalence and then, following a case history, explore the role of shame in rendering ambivalence unmanageable.
