Idealization of motherhood and psychic heritage: reflections in the contemporary

Abstract

Noticing the history transformations in motherhood, and the current identity crisis in the woman’s relationship between femininity and maternity, that is, the conflict between the ideas of motherhood related to the figure of the woman/mother and the contemporary demands of individual realization at work, this exploratory-descriptive, cross-sectional,  study of a qualitative approach was carried out, whose objective was to describe and analyze, from the perspective of psychoanalysis of the linking configurations, the experience of mothers who abandoned the professional career for the exclusive dedication to motherhood. Eight middle-class women, aged between 30 and 50, who were mothers and abandoned their professional careers to dedicate themselves to motherhood-retirar, were interviewed.The interviews that composed the results were transcribed, and thematic content analyses pointed out the multiple demands, both social and related to psychic heritage, which have implications for the identity construction of these women. We conclude that an elaboration of this heritage requires a link network of support and presupposes the non-idealization of motherhood, understanding it as plural, both in the sense of being multiple and diverse, and in the sense of being a bonding construction.