Gina Ferrara Mori - From Pregnancy to Motherhood: Psychoanalytic aspects of the beginning of the mother-child relationship

From Pregnancy to Motherhood

From Pregnancy to Motherhood: Psychoanalytic aspects of the beginning of the mother-child relationship explores the mental states associated with pregnancy, birth, and the early days of motherhood from a psychoanalytic perspective. Drawing on clinical research findings and the Infant Observation method originally developed by Esther Bick, the contributors examine a range of topics which include: how womens views of motherhood are influenced by social, cultural, and biotechnological factors; how womens sense of identity changes throughout pregnancy and motherhood; how womens relationships with family, partner, and future child are shaped; and how mental health professionals can better understand ways to work with issues of maternal and infant mental health.

Gina Ferrara Mori presents the research of psychoanalysts and psychotherapists working in different settings with mothers-to-be exploring their emotions, wishes, dreams, phantasies, and fears during the time in which they wait for the birth of their baby and experience the various phases of their bodies development. Their work discusses the specific and complex developmental process in female identity which the authors have termed the construction of the internal motherhood which becomes a psychic container establishing the pre-conditions for developing bonds, affection, and their relationship with the baby once it has been born.

From Pregnancy to Motherhood develops and elaborates theoretical thinking and research already available, as well as presenting new material. It will be stimulating reading for psychoanalysts, psychologists, psychotherapists, gynaecologists, paediatricians, ultrasound doctors and technicians, midwives, social workers, healthcare assistants, registered and practical nurses, teachers, and students.

Gina Ferrara Mori is a member and training analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association. She is a child and adult psychoanalyst, and supervisor of the psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists at the Martha Harris Study Centre in Florence.

First published 2015
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

Previously published in Italian as Un tempo per la maternit interiore. Gli albori della relazione madre-bambino, 2008 by Borla, Rome, Italy.

2015 Gina Ferrara Mori

The right of Gina Ferrara Mori to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Tempo per la maternit interiore. English
From pregnancy to motherhood : psychoanalytic aspects of the beginning of the mother-child relationship / edited by Gina Ferrara Mori.

pages cm
Previously published in Italian as Un tempo per la maternit interiore. Gli albori della relazione madre-bambino, 2008 by Borla, Rome, Italy.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Pregnant womenMental health. 2. MothersMental health. 3. Mother and childPsychological aspects. 4. Love, MaternalPsychological aspects. I. Mori, Gina Ferrara. II. Title.

RG560.T4313 2015
618.20651dc23 2014044980

ISBN: 978-0-415-73609-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-73610-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74291-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman and Gill Sans
by codeMantra

by Jeanne Magagna

Gina Ferrara Mori

Isabella Lapi and Laura Mori

Luigia Cresti Scacciati and Laura Mori

Luigia Cresti Scacciati and Cristina Pratesi

Linda Root Fortini

Luigia Cresti Scacciati

Maria Rosa Ceragioli, Arianna Luperini, Gabriella Smorto

Arianna Luperini

Marco Mastella

Fiorella Monti

Gabriella Smorto

Cristina Pratesi

Isabella Lapi

Dina Vallino

Maria Rosa Ceragioli, Ph.D. (Pisa) Psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist CSMH-AMHPPIA and EFPP. Head psychologist at the Family Consulting Functional Unit, in the public sector, in charge of the brief consultation service for parents of children from 0 to 5 years old. She is author, together with A. Luperini, L. Mori and G. Smorto, of the book Aspettando. Figure della maternit, Florence 2011.

Luigia Cresti Scacciati, Ph.D. (Florence) Psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist AFPP and EFPP. Founding member and teacher with training functions of the AFPP. For many years, she has been working on the use of Infant Observation for the training of psychotherapists and healthcare professionals, and on the extensions of the Bick Method, in particular in the field of pregnancy and internal motherhood. She has edited, together with P. Farneti and C. Pratesi, Osservazione e trasformazione, Roma 2001 and, together with S. Nissim, Percorsi di crescita: dagli occhi alla mente, Roma 2007. She is Senior Editor of the AFPP scientific journal Contrappunto.

Gina Ferrara Mori, M.D. (Florence) Pediatrician, full member and supervising psychoanalyst SPI and IPA. Expert in child and adolescent psychoanalysis, supervising analyst for students of CSMH in Florence. She has written many clinical papers for specialized journals as well as research studies on Infant Observation and early mother-child relationships. She is the editor of the book Un tempo per la maternit interiore, Roma 2008.

Isabella Lapi, Ph.D. (Florence) Psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist AFPP and EFPP. Teacher with training functions of the AFPP; she works in the public sector as head of a child mental health service, regarding in particular pregnancy, early mother-child relationship, and psychotherapeutic consultations on trauma and mourning in childhood. She is a member of the bioethics committee in Tuscany. She is the author of many papers on these topics.

Arianna Luperini, Ph.D. (Pisa) Psychologist, psychoanalyst associate member SPI and IPA. Her special interests are the relationship between psychoanalysis and art, and the theme of the birth of internal motherhood. She edits the book series S/Confini. She is the author, together with T. Lorito and R. Tancredi, of the childrens book Il popolo di sopra, Pisa 2007, and with M.R. Ceragioli, L. Mori and G. Smorto, of the book Aspettando. Figure della maternit, Florence 2011.

Jeanne Magagna, Ph.D. (London) Child, adult, and family psychoanalytic psychotherapist who trained at the Tavistock Clinic in London. She was Head of Psychotherapy Services at Great Ormond Street Hospital for children. Among her publications are Intimate Transformations: Babies with their Families (2005) and The Silent Child: Communication without Words