This graphic memoir is a companion piece to Bechdel's earlier work 'Fun Home', which dealt with her relationship with her father. 'Are You My Mother?' delves into Bechdel's relationship with her mother, an unaffectionate amateur actor trapped in a marriage to a closeted homosexual. The book interweaves memoir with psychoanalysis, drawing on the works of Donald Winnicott, Virginia Woolf, and other literary figures. It follows Bechdel's quest to understand her mother through dreams, therapy sessions, and personal reflections, ultimately concluding on a note of acceptance and appreciation for the complexities of their relationship.
D.W. Winnicott's "The Child, the Family, and the Outside World" is a seminal work in psychoanalysis, exploring the intricate interplay between the child's development and the environment. The book emphasizes the importance of the mother-child relationship and the role of the 'good enough mother' in fostering healthy development. Winnicott introduces key concepts such as transitional objects and the importance of play in the child's emotional growth. He challenges traditional psychoanalytic views, focusing on the child's subjective experience and the impact of environmental factors. The book's insights continue to influence contemporary understandings of child development and therapeutic practice.
Abby, Patrick, and Dan take up a topic that couldn’t be more relevant to the contemporary zeitgeist – aggression – as theorized by an unlikely source: the British analyst and pediatrician D.W. Winnicott. What did this beloved and famously gentle figure have to say about aggression, and our taboos and fantasies surrounding it? Where does aggression come from, and what is its function developmentally? And what role can acknowledging feelings of “hate” play in the family, in psychotherapy, and in everyday life? To answer all these questions, this episode – the first in a three-part series – sees Abby, Patrick, and Dan sketch out Winnicott’s biography, discuss his theoretical preoccupations, and unpack his approach to therapy, especially with severely distressed children and adults. Close-reading his essay, “The Roots of Aggression” (collected in the The Child, the Family, and the Outside World) they explore how, for Winnicott, the capacity to work with aggression implicates everything from our ability to move in physical space to our feeling deserving of love.
Robert Adès et al., editors. “Index of Available Audio Recordings.” The Collected Works of D. W. Winnicott: Volume 12, Appendices and Bibliographies, Oxford University Press, 2016:
https://doi.org/10.1093/med:psych/9780190271442.003.0011
“Winnicott: The ‘Good-Enough Mother’ Radio Broadcasts.” OUPblog, Dec. 2016:
https://blog.oup.com/2016/12/winnicott-radio-broadcasts/
Brett Kahr, “Winnicott’s ‘Anni Horribiles’: The Biographical Roots of ‘Hate in the Counter-Transference.’” American Imago, vol. 68, no. 2, 2011, pp. 173–211.
D. W. Winnicott, “Hate in the Counter-Transference.” The Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research, vol. 3, no. 4, 1994, pp. 348–56.
Winnicott, “Roots of Aggression.” The Collected Works of D. W. Winnicott: Volume 7, 1964 - 1966, edited by Lesley Caldwell and Helen Taylor Robinson, Oxford University Press, 2016:
https://doi.org/10.1093/med:psych/9780190271398.003.0018
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