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Palgrave Macmillan

The Existential Crisis of Motherhood

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Editors:
  1. Claire Arnold-Baker

    1. The New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London, UK

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  • Offers an existential perspective on experiences of motherhood and maternal mental health
  • Examines different experiences of being a mother, as well as those of fathers and women who choose to remain child-free
  • Explores the philosophical tensions of being a mother, the social and cultural impacts on and of motherhood, and various implications for clinical practice

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxxvii
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  2. Existential Crisis: The Philosophical Tensions of Being a Mother

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Introduction: The Existential Crisis of Motherhood

      • Claire Arnold-Baker
      Pages 3-16

    3. Confronting Existence: The Existential Dimensions of Becoming a Mother

      • Claire Arnold-Baker
      Pages 17-35

    4. The Corporeal Dimensions of Motherhood

      • Julie McCarthy
      Pages 37-55

    5. Existential Responsibility of Motherhood

      • Victoria Garland
      Pages 57-76

    6. The Existential Freedom of Mothers

      • Naomi Stadlen
      Pages 77-92

    7. Engaging with Uncertainty and Unresolved Meanings During the Transition to Motherhood

      • Elizabeth Simmons
      Pages 93-111

  3. Maternal Mental Health Crisis: Understanding Maternal Mental Health from an Existential Perspective

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 113-113
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    2. Through the Lens of Trauma: The Experience of Mothering a Very Premature Infant in the First Year After Hospital Discharge

      • Romy Shulman
      Pages 115-132

    3. Postnatal Depression: An Existential Crisis?

      • Miriam Donaghy
      Pages 133-154

    4. Maternal Postnatal Depression: The Fathers’ Experience

      • Farasat Sadia
      Pages 155-173

  4. Social Crisis: An Existential Understanding of the Impact on Motherhood of Social and Cultural Aspects

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 175-175
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    2. Identity and Mothering: The Second Generation of Ghanaian Migrants

      • Jennifer Ofori
      Pages 177-198

    3. Motherhood and the Traumatic Death of One’s Child

      • Susan Harris
      Pages 199-219

    4. Trying to “Have-It-All” at 30; Timing Motherhood

      • Naomi Magnus
      Pages 221-240

    5. The Experience of Being a Childfree Woman

      • Josephine Coates-Davies
      Pages 241-256

  5. Working with Existential Crisis in Clinical Practice

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 257-257
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    2. Exploring the Moods of First Time Mothers Through Imagery

      • Aoife Gaffney
      Pages 259-280

    3. Existential Group Work with Mothers

      • Claire Arnold-Baker, Victoria Garland
      Pages 281-296
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Keywords

About this book

This book offers a new perspective on the motherhood experience. Drawing on existential philosophy and recent phenomenological research into motherhood, the book demonstrates how motherhood can be understood as an existential crisis. It argues that an awareness of the existential issues women face will enable mothers to gain a deeper understanding of the multifaceted aspects of their experience. The book is divided into four sections: Existential Crisis, Maternal Mental Health Crisis, Social Crisis and Working with Existential Crisis, where each section. Each chapter is based on either experiential research or the author’s extensive therapeutic experience of working with mothers and reflects different aspects of the motherhood journey, all through the lens of a philosophical existential approach. The book is essential reading for mental health practitioners and researchers working with mothers, midwives and health visitors, but it is also written for mothers, with the aim to offer newinsights on this important life transition. 

Editors and Affiliations

  • The New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London, UK

    Claire Arnold-Baker

About the editor

Claire Arnold-Baker is a counselling psychologist and existential psychotherapist specialising in working with mothers. She is also Course Leader of the DCPsych Programme, a joint programme with The New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling and Middlesex University, UK.

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