Author Description

In Motherhood and Sexuality, one of Latin America's most prominent psychoanalysts interprets the sources of modern woman's unconscious conflicts. Available for the first time to an English-speaking audience, the book is as illuminating today as it was when it was first released. Marie Langer argues that economic institutions and cultural values must be altered to permit women full participation in creative and productive activities if women are to accept their maternal role without conflict or resentment. Within this context, her work presents a rare exploration of psychosomatic disorders related to female reproductive life. The book demonstrates the centrality of the mother-daughter relationship to each woman's potential to embrace her experience as a sexual being and mother. Combining psychoanalytic theory with fascinating clinical material, chapters cover woman's conflictual relationship to menstruation, sexuality, pregnancy, infertility, childbirth, breast-feeding, and menopause. Withstanding the test of time, Langer's interpretation of the psychological dimension of the causes and meanings of infertility, for example, provides an in-depth treatment of a topic that is even more relevant today than when it was written. Throughout, Nancy Caro Hollander has added critical chapter notes to indicate the changes in Langer's thinking since the book was published and to relate Langer's perspectives to contemporary ideas about female sexuality and motherhood. In addition, Hollander's Introduction and Afterword provide an overview of Langer's life and trace the development of her ideas. Integrating a Kleinian perspective on the unconscious roots of female psychosexual development with apolitical understanding of the socially constructed impediments to women's equality, this book fills an important gap in the literature. It is valuable reading for psychologists, psychoanalysts, and other mental health professionals interested in questions of femininity, gender identi