Abstract

PIP: Focus in this discussion of the relevance of early psychic development to pregnancy and abortion is on the problems relating to a woman's identification with the internal representation of her own mother, an identification that is bodily reinforced when she becomes pregnant, and the revival in pregnancy of infantile fantasies about herself as the intrauterine fetus in her mother's body which are activated by her narcissistic identification with the fetus inside her own body. The physically symbiotic state of pregnancy is paralleled by an emotional symbiotic state in the future mother where identifications with her own mother and with herself as the fetus may reactivate ambivalent feelings. Thus pregnancy provides the future mother with an opportunity to decide whether to let the fetus live or die. The analysis of a patient who repeatedly allowed herself to become pregnant but aborted the pregnancy each time illustrates this theme. Transference and countertransference problems encountered in her analysis with a woman analyst reflected the difficult relationship to her own mother in which the infantile aspects had not been successfully resolved and integrated in her adult self. For some women, pregnancy may be one of the most enriching stages of the life cycle. For a young woman whose experience with her own mother has been sufficiently good, the temporary regression to a primary identification with the omnipotent, fertile, lifegiving mother, as well as with herself as if she were her own child, is a pleasurable developmental phase in which further maturation and growth of the self may be achieved. For other women, the inevitable regression brought about by pregnancy and motherhood may be a painful and frightening experience. The physical changes of pregnancy facilitate a woman's bodily experience of primary unity with her mother and at the same time provide an experience of differentiation from her mother's body which once contained her own. Thus a further stage of separation-individuation is forced upon her. The unique combination of bodily and emotional feelings brought on by a 1st pregnancy gives a young woman an alternative means of resolving psychic conflict. Attention is next directed to the young woman's relationship to her body, to her self, to her own mother as an object, and to her experience of being physically and emotionally mothered. Analysis of a patient who repeatedly allowed herself to become pregnant but aborted the pregnancy each time is recounted.