‘Only mothers can be true revolutionaries’: The Politicization of Motherhood in 1980s West German Psychoanalysis

Abstract

Analyzing conceptualizations of motherhood in 1980s West German psychoanalytic debates, this article argues that, in the wake of what can be termed as a ‘turn to motherhood,’ German psychoanalysis saw an unprecedented politicization of motherhood that followed from a conjunction of three distinct historical contexts: the integration of feminist theories of subjectivity into the psychoanalytic canon; the belated reception of the British object relations school; and the renewed attempt at grappling with the Nazi past. On the one hand, West German (female) psychoanalysts posited motherhood as a utopian space that allowed for uncorrupted forms of intersubjectivity in the form of an intimate and sexualized mother–child/mother–daughter relationship. On the other hand, and mirroring this ideal, motherhood, if not practiced correctly, could, according to psychoanalytically inspired thinkers in the late 1980s, also be a source of fascism.