Maternal Desire
eBook - ePub

Maternal Desire

On Children, Love, and the Inner Life

  1. 336 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Maternal Desire

On Children, Love, and the Inner Life

About this book

Esteemed psychologist Daphne de Marneffe examines women's desire to care for children in an updated reissue of her "fascinating analysis that's a welcome addition to the dialogues about motherhood" ( Publishers Weekly ). If a century ago it was women's sexual desires that were unspeakable, today it is the female desire to mother that has become taboo. One hundred years of Freud and feminism have liberated women to acknowledge and explore their sexual selves, as well as their public and personal ambitions. What has remained inhibited is women's thinking about motherhood. Maternal Desire is the first book to treat women's desire to mother as a legitimate focus of intellectual inquiry and personal exploration. Shedding new light on old debates, Daphne de Marneffe provides an emotional road map for mothers who work and mothers who are at home. De Marneffe both explores the enjoyment and anxieties of motherhood and offers mothers in all situations valuable ways to think through their self-doubts and connect to their capacity for pleasure.Drawing on a rich tradition of writers, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Adrienne Rich, Carol Gilligan, and Susan Faludi, as well as her experience as a psychologist and mother of three, de Marneffe illuminates how we express our desire to care for children. By treating maternal desire as a central feature of women's identity—rather than as an inconvenient or slightly embarrassing detail—we can look with fresh insight at controversial issues, such as childcare, fertility, abortion, and the role of fathers. An "absorbing look at the enormous personal pleasure that women derive from mothering…. Maternal Desire is a stirring book that celebrates women's love for their children and mothering while also supporting their interest in careers and other pursuits" ( Booklist ).

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Maternal Desire by Daphne de Marneffe in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Sozialwissenschaften & Feminismus & feministische Theorie. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Preface to the Second Edition
  4. 1. The “Problem” of Maternal Desire
  5. 2. Feminism
  6. 3. Psychoanalysis
  7. 4. Pleasure
  8. 5. Ambivalence
  9. 6. Childcare
  10. 7. Fertility
  11. 8. Abortion
  12. 9. Fathers
  13. 10. Time with Children
  14. Acknowledgments
  15. ‘The Rough Patch’ Teaser
  16. About the Author
  17. Notes on Sources
  18. Bibliography
  19. Index
  20. Copyright