The Complexities of Motherhood Desire

In today’s context of reproductive technologies, one has the idea that we might have more control over the process of reproduction. No longer necessarily linked to sexuality, reproduction and parenthood can occur in a multitude of ways, pushing the boundaries of what was not thought to be possible or acceptable.  These biotechnical innovations have not only changed the ways that one can become a parent but also necessarily suggest new areas for psychoanalytic theorizing. 

In this podcast episode, Dr. Patricia Alkolombre discusses how the desire for a child has become in some cases, the passion for a child “at any price”, made more urgent and concentrated as the biotechnical innovations offer us the sense that we have control over our bodies and their reproductive and gestational functions in new ways.  She discusses what this means for psychoanalytic understandings of gender, parenthood, femininity, loss, disappointment, narcissism and our understandings of ourselves and how this new era of reproduction ushers in a new set of clinical issues.

Dr. Patricia Alkolombre holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Salvador. She is a Training and supervising analyst of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association and is the current Overall Chair of the IPA Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis.  She gives seminars in many post-graduate institutions and mental health centers in Buenos Aires and in psychoanalytic institutions abroad, among them are the Psychoanalytic Association of Guadalajara, the Brazilian Society of Porto Alegre, Brazil.

She is the author and editor of several books. Among them are:  The Desire and Passion for a Child: Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Reproductive Techniques (Routledge, 2023) in Spanish and english. She is also the author and the editor of the book Travesías del cuerpo femenino (2012) (Declared of Interest in Culture and Health by the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires).

She is co-author of Changing sexualities and parental function in the twenty first century (Routledge 2017) and of Psychoanalytic Explorations of what women want today: femininity, desire, and agency (Routledge 2022).

A subtitled version of this podcast is available on our YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhxiwE76e0QaOquX3GujdwNLFsgxUQNXz&si=yf381EDu3pess6Yz

You can download a copy of the paper here: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j-ANLupJF6b44NVmlC0XSfMMml7-sprb/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100400904585889441765&rtpof=true&sd=true

This Podcast Series, published by the International Psychoanalytical Association, is part of the activities of the IPA Communication Committee and is produced by the IPA Podcast Editorial Team. Co-Editors: Gaetano Pellegrini and Nicolle Zapien. Editing and Post-Production: Massimiliano Guerrieri.

This episode has also been published in Spanish.

This episode has also been published in Portuguese.