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The Baby Makers: An In‐Depth Single‐Case Study of Conscious and Unconscious Psychological Reactions to Infertility and ‘Baby‐Making’ Technology
Author(s) -
RaphaelLeff Joan
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.1992.tb01190.x
Subject(s) - psychology , rumination , anxiety , psychotherapist , unconscious mind , interpersonal communication , covert , presentation (obstetrics) , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , psychoanalysis , social psychology , cognition , psychiatry , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , radiology
. Recent innovations of interventive technologies of fertilisation (AIH, AID, IVF) have brought in their wake a wave of psychological reactions in the consumers. This new syndrome includes psychological symptoms such as derealisation, depersonalisation, hypochondria, low self‐esteem, guilt and neurotic depression; anxiety reactions; phobic avoidance and obsessional reactions with rumination and compulsive rituals. In addition, considerable interpersonal stress is manifested within the marital/intimate relationships of these patients who strive to ‘make’ a baby, rather than being able to just naturally ‘have’ one. This presentation focuses on unconscious phantasies and dynamic processes underlying such symptomatology, including the emotional effects of being unable to treat intercourse as a twoperson generative event or the body as a creative fertile exponent of the self. Data is drawn from an in‐depth study of 19 patients seen in 1–5 per week psychoanalysis or individual/couple therapy and a single case is presented in depth. Attention is focused on subfertile patients' special transference relationship to the medical specialist ‐ as ‘Baby Maker’.