ABSTRACT
The Desire and Passion for a Child explores psychoanalytic work in the field of reproductive techniques, approached from different Freudian and post-Freudian perspectives and gender theories. It chronicles the questions provoked by different clinical presentations in order to provide reflections and hypotheses on a subject that links bodies and desires through the longing for paternity. The vicissitudes of female and male infertility, the place of bodies, and women's plural desires are present. The passion for a child is a type of maternity marked by emotional intensity and the insistence on seeking pregnancy even at the cost of self-destruction. Vignettes on gamete donation, surrogate motherhood, enigmatic infertility, and the effects of abortion on women and men are analysed from an interdisciplinary approach. In this field, new origins challenge us about this alchemy in which bodies, fluids, and cells can be combined, substituted, and modified. The historical and cultural context of these issues was biased by an androcentric perspective that has deeply influenced the maternal ideal and expectations of men. All these issues not only present theoretical-clinical challenges, but also touch on the analyst's theories and prejudices that can operate as obstacles.
