(1950). Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 5:139-152 Development of the Wish for a Child in Boys It is woman's biological destiny to bear and deliver, to nurse and to rear children. However great the father's share in the care of his offspring, it is the "mother-child unit" which develops the first germs of human love and functioning in the child. No wonder that biological instincts, experience and education combine, already in childhood, to prepare the woman for her future role as a mother. In fact, the wish for a child plays a predominant part in the psychosexual development of the little girl. Promoted and influenced by her castration conflict it may have normal vicissitudes, may be inhibited or warped but eventually will shape up to specifically patterned attitudes which find individual expression in more or less mature or infantile, loving or ambivalent relationships to her children. Since this problem is of such paramount significance in a woman's life, the analytic productions of female patients inevitably force attention on it. Hence, we have studied the normal [This is a summary or excerpt from the full text of the book or article. The full text of the document is available to subscribers.] |
