Sigmund Freud explored the theme of motherhood and the role of the mother is crucial in his theory of the Oedipus complex. The mother and her body are the space, where the child's sexual development begins. Mother later serves as a prototype for the child's adult love life. Women psychoanalysts emphasized the role of the mother in the child's development even more than Freud. Melanie Klein developed the theory of object relations, in which she emphasizes the importance of the mother as the child’s first caregiver for their development. In her theory, the connection between love and hatred in the maternal relationship is crucial. She based her thinking on her own clinical experience and observation of children’s play. For Helene Deutsch the mother is a central figure as well, and she is the key to the development of the girl’s sexuality and sexual life. She also reflects on female homosexuality. Karen Horney examines motherhood in a broader context, exploring it through a socio-cultural lens and emphasizing that women’s sexuality cannot be understood through men’s. Luce Irigaray similarly considers female sexuality as a unified and closed concept. Donald Winnicott and Jacques Lacan analyze the question of motherhood through the concept of the mirror, and Lacan elevates motherhood to the symbolic order.
Elena Ferrante takes on the theme of motherhood in a novelistic form and answers the questions that motherhood poses through stories. She studies motherhood deeply and connects it to many aspects of life, from the mother’s socio-economic status to her mental state. For Ferrante motherhood begins for the little girl as soon as she is born and only ends with her death; it is something that accompanies women throughout their entire lives. She presents this through various motifs that recur in several works, such as the motif of the jewelry, which the girl often inherits from her mother. She also reflects on determinism and how the environment and family influence the child.
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