American Journal of Psychoanalysis
Volume 75, Issue 3, 2015, Pages 304-319

Giving birth in exile: Motherhood as reterritorialization (Article)

Pestre E.*
  • a Paris Diderot University, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Center for Research in Psychoanalysis, Medicine and Society (EAD-3522), France, UFR 'Etudes Psychanalytiques', Bâtiment Olympe de Gouges, Place Paul Ricoeur, Paris Cedex 13, 75205, France

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of exile on the subjectivity of pregnant migrant women through the lens of the processes of deterritorialization and reterritorialization. Having escaped the gaze of the parental superego, the subject's encounter with sexuality becomes possible. However, in addition to the emancipatory aspects of migration, we observe particular somatic-psychical effects on reproductive ability. These "exile" pregnancies are generally experienced as difficult and painful, laying bare a symptomatology that is as much psychical as somatic, and which highlights the cost of a desire for independence. In this context, where perinatal risks must be evaluated and treated through an interdisciplinary approach, a clinical accompaniment proves to be indispensable for the maternity to progress smoothly on foreign soil. © 2015 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

Author Keywords

Sexuality Migration Fertility Pregnancy clinical approach Deterritorialization

Index Keywords

Argentina human sexuality ethnology Psychoanalytic Interpretation Young Adult Humans psychology Acculturation female pregnancy Mothers cultural factor psychoanalysis adult mother migration Transients and Migrants Paraguay

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84941210766&doi=10.1057%2fajp.2015.28&partnerID=40&md5=2874b4f2277c929f91afca7a24b68b23

DOI: 10.1057/ajp.2015.28
ISSN: 00029548
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English