We demonstrate the value of a rapprochement between psychoanalytic work aimed at supporting marginalized mothers and discursive accounts of low-income mothers, providing a psychosocial analysis of data from an interview study with six low-income South African mothers. Employing discourse analysis, we show how instrumental mothering is a dominant and precarious construction in these mothers’ talk. We use the concept of mentalization to track the affective work that accompanies the interactional emergence of this instrumental mothering discourse in a particular interview encounter. The implications of the research are discussed in the light of increasing demands for sociocultural responsive research and clinical practice.
Details
Title
“I wonder if you will be sad?”: Employing the concept of mentalization psychosocially with low-income mothers
Authors/Creators
Lisa Saville Young - Murdoch University, School of Psychology
Siobhán Kinahan Sweeney
Publication Details
Psychoanalysis, culture & society
Publisher
Springer Nature
Identifiers
991005680464907891
Copyright
The Author(s) 2024
Murdoch Affiliation
School of Psychology
Language
English
Resource Type
Journal article
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