WHY PARENTALITY ?

Parentalité on wikipedia

Because having a baby isn’t the same as becoming a parent. Parentality is a complex process in the parents’ minds and requires the accompaniment of the family and social group. Serge Lebovici, pioneer of child psychoanalysis in France, was particularly interested in parentality; it is through parental links that the process of subjectivation – that is, the psychic life of the child - is constructed. The process depends on the way in which parents (the father and especially the mother) look after their child.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARENTALITY IN THE PSYCHIC APPARATUS

“The child makes the mother”
“The father is already in the mind of the mother”
“The mother recognizes the father and he inscribes the child in his lineage”
- Serge Lebovici

UNDERSTANDING, PREVENTION, FINDING JOY IN BEING A PARENT

Serge Lebovici proposes that parentality is very different from biological relatedness: in order to become a father or mother it is first necessary to undertake psychological work on oneself. First of all, this consists in comprehending what one has inherited from one’s parents: not only genetic information but also the psychic inheritance coming through intergenerational and transgenerational transmission. By becoming a parent, one has to re-encounter what one has received from one’s parents and will transmit to one’s children. The metaphor “tree of life” proposed by Serge Lebovici allows us an understanding of the thread of inter- and transgenerational transmission. Parentality and filiation are constructed in the psychic apparatus: these two complementary processes include the history of the child, of the parents and the grandparents. They also include a recognition of infantile sexuality, i.e. of unconscious drives. When what is transmitted is too full of conflicts, the development of the child is compromised and even the cultural affiliation is affected. The concept of the “parental ego” proposed by Leticia Solis Ponton helps us to understand the psychic work underlying the construction of parentality. When there are disturbances or deprivation in the relationship in the first three years of life, there is a high risk of development of pathology in the subjectivation process. We have realized that when there is a professional intervention, a therapeutic or preventive action in these difficult cases, it is possible to avoid the establishment of such pathological processes, which later would necessitate much more intensive psychological assistance. Professional support of parents during and after pregnancy helps them to face their parental functions and to take pleasure in the parental experience. In fact, parentality is a process lasting one’s whole life long, from infancy, through school age, adolescence, adulthood and grandparenthood. Each stage throws up its own challenges which parents and children must meet.

PARENTALITY IN THE FAMILY OF TODAY

The metamorphosis in the family constellations of today confront us with the emergence of a new and somewhat disquieting “geometry”: mixed marriages, divorces, separations, reconstituted and monoparental families, homosexual parents, medically assisted pregnancies, multiple forms of adoption of children etc. In some of these situations parents become stripped of their parental functions and find themselves sometimes in dramatic situations. Therefore many parents need to be accompanied by professionals to help orient them in these new family relationships. 

PSYCHOANALYSIS APPLIED TO THE PREVENTION OF PSYCHIC SUFFERING OF CHILD AND PARENTS

This approach proposes clinical research and training, as well as the publication of papers, on the theme of parentality as a form of applied psychoanalysis. The three principal goals are as follows:

- UNDERSTANDING of psychological relationships.
- EDUCATION AND TRAINING of professionals working with children and families. Our approach to parentality affords a space where a transcultural and transdisciplinary dialogue between professionals can take place regarding their work with children and families.
- PREVENTION of psychological suffering of the child and his parents.