When a Mother Brings Her Baby to Psychoanalytic Sessions

Thomson-Salo, Frances

Abstract

In this review paper, the clinical importance of being open to why a mother wishes to bring her baby to analysis is considered as a spectrum of views about the frame and transferential aspects of why a mother shares her sessions are explored. The concept of motherhood as a developmental stage is first outlined, as well as difficulties on the path to motherhood. In discussing the centrality of attending closely to countertransference in following the meanings of the request and the evolving analytic process, the analytic potential of a baby's presence in a mother's working through is exquisitely perceptible, highlighting gains in integrating projections and facilitating introjections so that a maternal good object may be more securely internalised and consolidated. A baby's presence may contribute to a more layered presentation with a mother bringing material that might otherwise be 'beyond words'. Taken together this suggests that a more traditional view of the frame that a baby should not come to sessions may slow therapeutic gains, and that technique would be informed by viewing the request as developmentally appropriate.