GALLO-BELLUZZO, S. R.; FERREIRA-TEIXEIRA, M. C.; SAMPAIO, C. de M.; BASAGLIA, J.; GONZÁLEZ, M. R.; MONTEIRO, T. C.; AIELLO-VAISBERG, T. M. J. The collective imaginary of mothers regarding motherhood: initial considerations. Proceedings of the XIII Apoiar Conference on Care and Prevention in Mental Health: Proposals and Research, p. 387–399. São Paulo: Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, 2015.
Abstract: The objective of this research is to psychoanalytically investigate the collective imaginary of mothers regarding motherhood. The study is justified both by the societal attribution of child care as a maternal responsibility and by the frequent demand for child psychological care, particularly in school-clinic settings. We organized the investigation by methodologically distinguishing investigative procedures for configuring, recording, and interpreting encounters with participants. Individual interviews were conducted with eight low-middle-class mothers, using the Thematic Drawing-and-Story Procedure [D-E (T)] as a facilitating tool. After each encounter, transferential narratives were developed, which, when considered alongside the drawings and stories, enabled the interpretive production of an affective-emotional meaning field named “Always Owing…”. This field can be defined as a lived world constituted by the belief that mothers feel obligated to meet the numerous and endless needs of their children but are unable to do so. This scenario reveals women concerned with being good mothers but who experience suffering due to the sacrifices made to care for their children and the feelings of loneliness and abandonment in maternal and domestic tasks. This is likely a contemporary phenomenon stemming from the overload of responsibilities that combines near-exclusive accountability for parenting and household duties with the challenges faced by women in the workforce.