ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I address the effect of being an “under-mothered” adult: that is, growing up with the legacy of insufficient mothering as a result of one of a number of scenarios: mother being too preoccupied with drugs, alcohol, or poverty; catatonic as a result of suffocating depression; busy in the thrall of a demanding career; emotionally numb as a result of medication; preoccupied with her own sexual liaisons; under the dominance of an abusive partner; possibly seeing her child as the product of an unfortunate sexual encounter that she would rather forget. There are a variety of other contributory factors that have not been mentioned but, nevertheless, could account for the child being “under-mothered”.
