Abstract

GALVAN, Gabriela. Case B: the perfect mother and the constitution of the self. Winnicott e-prints [online]. 2009, vol.4, n.1e2, pp. 1-10. ISSN 1679-432X.

From the perspective of Winnicottian psychoanalysis, human beings are constituted as such in their relations with the environment. It is from the mother-baby relation that Winnicott understands the constitution of a human being as a trajectory that, when healthy, allows an individual to attain an identity, an integrated self. Throughout our development, we tread a path that goes from absolute dependency - a period in which the role of the environment is extremely important - to relative independence. The failures in maternity, when occurring at an early stage of maturing, impair an individual precisely in his or her feeling of being, in the constitution of a self that recognizes itself as such. In this paper, a specific kind of maternal failure is approached: the need for the mother's perfection. We then reflect about the mother-baby relation in those conditions and how it unfolds throughout the maturing process. To this end, we discuss case B - whose analysis was reported by Winnicott - specifically in regards to matters concerning the constitution of an integrated self

Keywords : amadurecimento; falha ambiental; si mesmo; falso si mesmo; estudo de caso.