Aspects of family mental health in Europe : contributors, D. Buckle ... [et al.].

Date:
1965
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Aspects of family mental health in Europe : contributors, D. Buckle ... [et al.]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE MOTHER AND THE FAMILY Dr H. HOFFMEYER ^ THE MOTHER IN A CHANGING SOCIETY The female partner in a marriage is bound more closely to the biological processes of procreation than any other member of the family group. It is this fact that gives rise to the central problems of family life. As conflicts within a family are to a large extent the result of changes in social, cultural, and environmental conditions, their importance is inversely proportional to the individual's capacity and opportunity for adaptation — to the flexibility of his or her role. The husband, the child or any other member of a family has much greater opportunity for adaptation, for changing his role, than has a wife, especially during her fertile years, when she is bound to fulfil her biological role in a way that does not allow her to assume in modern society a role very different from the one she played in the society of yesterday. As she is always the one upon whom the newborn child is depen¬ dent, the wife will always be the one who initiates and fosters his emotional development, and, whatever the social circumstances, will therefore continue to be the emotional nucleus of the family. Through exercising this role the wife herself becomes dependent on her family. Especially, her biological functions make her depen¬ dent on her supporter or supporters. Karen Horney has pointed out that in modern society her only way of ensuring this support is to rely on the reciprocal effect of the emotional ties that bind her to her supporter, for he can leave her and earn his own living, and still preserve his social status. As a result of these considerations we can conclude : firstly, that stresses and conflicts in family life will always tend to afíect the female partner much more deeply than they will the male; and, secondly, that — when dealing with a woman — it is essential to ^ Mothers' Aid Society, Copenhagen, Denmark. _ 9 _