Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

“My hormones drive me crazy”: psychoanalytic research with Brazilian mommy blogs

Abstract

Our article seeks to investigate the collective imaginaries of mothers about maternal suffering in the perspective of the concrete psychoanalytical psychology. This investigation may ground contemporary psychological clinical practices and offer a comprehensive knowledge to debates of social movements and civil society that focus on improving the conditions of emotional and mental care for mothers and children. Our study applies the psychoanalytic method, using posts from Brazilian mommy blogs as material. The psychoanalytical consideration of the posts, based on hovering attention and free association of ideas, allowed the interpretive production of one affective-emotional field “My hormones drive me crazy”. This field is organized around the phantasy that anxious and depressive feelings experienced by mothers during the post-partum (postpartum period) would be determined by hormones and/or neurotransmitters. The results indicate an imaginative tendency to prioritize biological dimensions of human behaviors rather than the drama of relational contexts.

Keywords:
motherhood; suffering; collective imaginary

Resumo

Esta pesquisa objetiva investigar psicanaliticamente imaginários coletivos de mães sobre sofrimentos maternos, na perspectiva da psicologia psicanalítica concreta. Justifica-se como busca de conhecimento compreensivo que pode trazer subsídios para a clínica psicológica contemporânea e para debates de movimentos sociais e sociedade civil que tenham por foco a melhoria das condições de cuidados a mães e filhos. Organiza-se ao redor do método psicanalítico, utilizando como material postagens provenientes de mommy blogs brasileiros. A leitura do conjunto de postagens, em estado de atenção flutuante e associação livre de ideias, permite a produção interpretativa do campo de sentido afetivo-emocional “Meus hormônios me enlouquecem”. Este campo se organiza ao redor da fantasia segundo a qual afetos ansiosos e depressivos, vivenciados por mães durante o puerpério, seriam determinados por hormônios e/ou neurotransmissores. O quadro geral indica uma tendência imaginativa a priorizar o valor da esfera biológica em detrimento da dramática da vida relacional-vincular.

Palavras-chave:
maternidade; sofrimento; imaginário coletivo

Resumen

Este estudio tiene como objetivo investigar psicoanalíticamente imaginarios colectivos de madres sobre sufrimientos maternos desde la perspectiva de la psicología psicoanalítica concreta. Se justifica como una búsqueda de conocimiento comprensivo que puede aportar subsidios para la clínica psicológica contemporánea y para debates de movimientos sociales y sociedad civil con el fin de mejorar las condiciones de cuidados a madres e hijos. Se organiza alrededor del método psicoanalítico, utilizando como material publicaciones provenientes de mommy blogs brasileños. La lectura del conjunto de publicaciones, en estado de atención fluctuante y libre asociación de ideas, permite la producción interpretativa del campo de sentido afectivo-emocional “Mis hormonas me enloquecen”. Ese campo se organiza en torno a la fantasía, de que los afectos ansiosos y depresivos vividos por las madres durante el puerperio serían determinados por hormonas y/o neurotransmisores. El cuadro general indica una tendencia significativa de priorizar el valor de la esfera biológica en detrimento del drama de la vida relacional-vincular.

Palabras clave:
maternidad; sufrimiento; imaginario colectivo

Résumé

Cette recherche examine, de manière psychanalytique, les imaginaires collectifs des mères sur la souffrance maternelle, selon la perspective de la psychologie psychanalitique concrète, se justifiant en tant que recherche des connaissances qui peuvent apporter des subsides à la clinique psychologique contemporaine et aux débats qui se concentre sur l’amélioration des conditions sociales. Cette investigation s’ articule autour de la méthode psychanalytique, en utilisant comme source des messages de mommy blogs brésiliens. La lecture des messages, en attention flottante et libre association d’idées, permet la production interprétative du champ de sens affectif-émotionnel “Mes hormones mes rendent folle”, qui s’organise autour du fantasme selon lequel les emotions seraient déterminées par des hormones et/ou des neurotransmetteurs. Le tableau général indique une tendance imaginative à privilégier la valeur de la biologie au détriment du drame de la vie relationnelle.

Mots-clés:
maternité; souffrance; imaginaire collectif

Introduction

The objective of studying the collective imaginaries of mothers about maternal suffering from the perspective of the concrete psychoanalytic psychology is part of a view according to which the experience of motherhood is affected, in contemporary society, by emotional suffering, here understood as socially determined. Producing knowledge of this issue seems to us to be an important initiative, both because it can generate subsidies for clinical-social practices, including psychology, and because it can enrich and substantiate debates that take place in social movements and civil society in the context of the search for transformations that support more solidary and respectful coexistence between individuals and groups.

In this way, the concept of social suffering has to be brought to the central point. Evidently, it can be used in a broad sense, according, for example, to the perspective of Bleger (1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)), for whom human nature would be social. However, it has been used since the last decades of the twentieth century, when adverse social conditions most clearly and directly affected well-being, safety and even the fundamental rights of human individuals and groups. Examples of social suffering are those that arise in certain situations, such as torture, war, racism, and anti-Semitism. We can recall here, as seminal studies, the works of Carreteiro (2003Carreteiro, T. C. (2003). Sofrimentos sociais em debate. Psicologia USP, 14(3), 57-72.), Werlang and Mendes (2013Werlang, R., & Mendes, J. M. R. (2013). Sofrimento social. Serviço Social e Sociedade, (116), 743-768.), and Fonseca (2017Fonseca, C. (2011). The de-kinning of birthmothers: reflections on maternity and being human. Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology, 8(2), 307-339. doi: 10.1590/S1809-43412011000200014
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1809-4341201100...
), without forgetting Renault (2010Renault, E. (2010). A critical theory of social suffering. Critical Horizons, 11(2), 221-241.), who highlights that feelings of helplessness, humiliation and injustice seem to be configured in these situations.

There is no doubt, however, that women can be considered a socially affected group; then, it is not surprising to find a specific chapter about their condition in the work organized by Kleinman, Das and Lock (1997Kleinman, A., Das, V. & Lock, M. (1997). Social suffering. Los Angeles: University of California Press.). In a way, all feminist literature can be taken as evidence that women struggle to overcome the conditions of inequality that generate significant emotional suffering. In this sense, the work of Das (1996Das, V. (1996). Critical events: an anthropological perspective on contemporary India. Oxford, MA: Oxford University Press.) is exemplary as focuses on what he calls critical events, that is, circumstances that cause suffering characterized by the brutality that affects everyone, but, more especially, women. The author’s contribution provides subsidies to not only reflect on such situations, but also for professionals to be able to carry out interventions, whether individually, with women, or institutionally, with institutions that receive this population or that are involved in the genesis of that suffering. Nevertheless, it does not seem to us that the clear connection between contemporary motherhood and social suffering has been sufficiently explored, and this is the reason why we consider it opportune to carry out studies on the collective imaginaries of mothers about maternal difficulties and suffering.

When we start from theoretical positions that value the concrete conditions within which human life goes, we understand that this study is located in a larger chapter on clinical concerns regarding emotional suffering, understood as socially determined. We justify this research from the acknowledgement of what mothers live concretely.

This investigation is part of the interface of two major orders. On the one hand, there are social requirements according to which the woman-mother should devote herself entirely to motherhood (Visintin & Aiello-Vaisberg, 2017Visintin, C. D. N., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (2017). Motherhood and social suffering in Brazilian mommy blogs. Revista Psicologia-Teoria e Prática, 19(2), 108-116.). On the other hand, in different environments, there are expectations that mothers will dedicate themselves to work and professional careers, remaining committed to the working world without giving up motherhood as a life mission, as found, for example, by Schulte, Gallo-Belluzzo and Aiello-Vaisberg (2019Schulte, A. D. A., Gallo-Belluzzo, S. R., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (2019). A experiência emocional de autoras de mommy blogs. Estudos Interdisciplinares em Psicologia, 7(1), 107-130.), in psychoanalytic research, and Märtsin (2018Märtsin, M. (2018). Becoming an employed mother: conceptualising adult identity development through semiotic cultural lens. Women’s Studies International Forum, (68), 11-18.), in research based on cultural semiotics. We understand that the confluence of these two orders, the one of mothers in idealized demand to devote and give integral attention to their child, and the other of the expectations that they also will dedicate themselves to work, constitutes a situation that generates tension for women as they face heavy demands when reconciling work and motherhood, known as a double shift, and because today’s woman who dedicates herself exclusively to motherhood does not enjoy the same comfort and fulfillment that certain women of other times could have felt as mothers and housewives.

There is research that indicates that the mother would be seen as a being with incredible capacities of devotion and love. We can remember the study by Greinert and Milani (2015Greinert, B. R. M., & Milani, R. G. (2015). Depressão pós-parto: uma compreensão psicossocial. Psicologia: Teoria e Prática, 17(1), 26-36.), who, using content analysis, claim that the impossibility of achieving an ideal of motherhood can favor the emergence of depressive feelings. Among other recent works, it is possible to highlight that of Henderson, Harmon and Newman (2016Henderson, A., Harmon, S., & Newman, H. (2016). The price mothers pay, even when they are not buying it: mental health consequences of idealized motherhood. Sex Roles, 74(11-12), 512-526. doi: 10.1007/s11199-015-0534-5
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0534-...
) who, when outlining their research as a survey, come to similar conclusions when realizing that mothers who do not meet the socially established expectations regarding child care tend to feel more anxious and guilty. Other authors, such as Alves and Poli (2016Alves, M. B., & Poli, M. C. (2016). When a woman is mother: feminine jouissance in motherhood. Ágora: Estudos em Teoria Psicanalítica, 19(2), 191-207. doi: 10.1590/S1516-14982016002003
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1516-1498201600...
) and Schechter and Perelson (2017Schechter, L. M. S., & Perelson, S. (2017). Separar-se da mãe para tornar-se mãe: a criação do espaço de concepção. Psicologia Clínica, 29(3), 403-427.), supported by certain psychoanalytic perspectives, also agree with the idea that motherhood would be the means by which women would be socially recognized. We believe that these research findings indicate positions that may be at the service of maintaining the current social organization regarding responsibility for children, which may make it more difficult to establish more strong community and social bonds committed to child care.

Hollway (2016Hollway, W. (2016). Feminism, psychology and becoming a mother. Feminism & Psychology, 26(2), 137-152. doi: 10.1177/0959353515625662
https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353515625662...
) postulates that crystallizations of the female and male model occur in our society, affecting the social and legal organizations of work. Apparently, it is also believed that women should remain in the private environment, taking care of the children and the house so that men would have the duty to provide for their wives and children. This type of organization is closely related to the way in which society has dealt with women’s labor and reproductive rights. We understand that, even if the gestation of a baby depends on the female body, provision of child care can occur in many ways, considering the cultural and historical dimension according to which people prepare themselves to receive a new member (Gottlieb & DeLoache, 2016Gottlieb, A., & DeLoache, J. S. (2016). A world of babies: imagined childcare guides for eight societies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.; Rogoff, 2005Rogoff, B. (2005). A natureza cultural do desenvolvimento humano. São Paulo, SP: Artmed.).

With the advancement in technology, conversations about many subjects, and motherhood among them, stopped happening just vis-à-vis to occur in other environments. According to Abetz and Moore (2018Abetz, J., & Moore, J. (2018). “Welcome to the Mommy Wars, Ladies”: making Sense of the Ideology of Combative Mothering in Mommy Blogs. Communication, Culture and Critique, 11(2), 265-281. doi: 10.1093/ccc/tcy008
https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcy008...
), blogs are one of the ways to communicate in the online world and used by women-mothers who try to deal with the difficulties of motherhood. In this way, mommy blogs - specific nomenclature to designate blogs written by women-mothers - become an important environment that offer valuable material for psychoanalytic research, since bloggers, voluntarily and spontaneously, talk about their emotional experiences related to child care (Schulte et al., 2016Schulte, A. A., Gallo-Belluzzo, S. R., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. (2016). Postagens em blogs pessoais: aproximação do acontecer humano em pesquisas psicanalíticas. Psicologia Revista, 25(2), 227-241. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/3sRRR2X
https://bit.ly/3sRRR2X...
).

Thus, the importance of what mothers live concretely is recognized, including the way they accept their own fears and doubts related to motherhood. We therefore justify this research, which aims to psychoanalytically investigate the collective imaginaries of women-mothers about maternal suffering through posts from Brazilian mommy blogs.

Fundamentals and methodological procedures

This study is a qualitative research with employment of the psychoanalytic method. Since its creation, this clinical method has remained invariant, supported by the pillars of free association of ideas and hovering attention, while theories and clinical procedures derived from it have undergone important changes and developments over time. This fact should not be surprising, since, from a logical point of view, the method precedes the creation of psychoanalytic doctrines and clinical procedures, as demonstrated by Herrmann (1979Herrmann, F. (1979). O método da psicanálise. São Paulo, SP: EPU.).

Bearing in mind that the proposal is to understand the affective and emotional foundations of human acts, the initial clarification of our theoretical-epistemological positioning is understood as essential. Next, we define the fundamental concepts used in this research to then describe the investigative procedures that correspond to the way in which we use the psychoanalytic method.

When the psychoanalytic method is set in motion, it ends up generating clinical material that can be theorized in different ways. When approaching these different modes, Greenberg and Mitchell (1983Greenberg, J. R., & Mitchell, S. A. (1983). Object relations in psychoanalytic theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.) were able to recognize that they are articulated as aligned to two models, the drive/structure model and the relational/structure model, between which theoretical proposals are outlined, seeking accommodations in the midst of these two poles. Politzer (1928/2004Politzer, G. (2004). Crítica dos fundamentos da Psicologia: psicologia e psicanálise. São Paulo, SP: Unimep. (Trabalho original publicado em 1928)) astutely perceived that this perspective would derive from the fact according to which Freudian discourse would be constituted by two different aspects, one energetic and physicalist and the other clinical and dramatic, a note that was widely recognized in the field of psychoanalysis, but which generated different points of view. Some authors, like Ricoeur (1977Ricoeur, P. (1977). Da interpretação: ensaio sobre Freud. Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Imago.), understand that the mixture of the two aspects would be highly advantageous, while others, like Bleger (1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)), criticize the abstractionism of the drive paradigm, understanding that this type of theorization should be abandoned.

Convinced by the Blegerian points of view, from clear phenomenological resonances that invite us to think about an intersubjective unconscious, we have placed our work under the aegis of the relational-structure model of psychoanalysis, starting from a theoretical position known as concrete psychoanalytic psychology (Bleger, 1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)). This perspective is in line with the psychoanalytic method but moves away from metapsychological theorizations, since it understands them as dependent on unacceptable positivist myths according to which the person would be seen in an abstract and natural way, isolated from the concrete conditions of their existence. It is a relational theorization that is distinguished from others of the same type precisely because it emphasizes that individuals and groups move in connected fields that are always inserted in macrosocial contexts that cannot be disregarded (Sas, 2004Sas, S. A. (2004). L’interprétation dans le trans-subjectif: Réflexions sur l’ambiguïté et les espaces psychiques. Psychothérapies, 24(4), 207-213.).

Whereas all human phenomena must be understood as inherently social (Bleger, 1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)), Goldmann (1974Goldmann, L. (1974). Pensée dialectique et sujet transindividuel. In L. Goldmann, La création culturette dans la société moderne (pp. 121-154). Paris: Gonthier.), whose contributions resulting from his investigations on cultural creation coincide with the Blegerian view, defined transindividual (collective) subject in a precise manner. This aspect is very significant in qualitative research with employment of the psychoanalytic method on collective imaginaries, since we focus on what is shared by many people, even if it is absolutely personal. Such collective subjects are, of course, concrete, but such concreteness is configured through individual acts, remembering that humans are, simultaneously and paradoxically, individual and collective.

To organize our research, we use certain methodological concepts. Here, we make use of three concepts: conduct, collective imaginary and affective-emotional sense field.

In the perspective of concrete psychology (Bleger, 1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)), the behaviors correspond to any and all types of manifestations of the human being, expressed mentally, bodily and/or as performance in the external world. Such human manifestations would be the object of study shared by all human sciences. The conducts would also be liable to be considered in terms of levels of infra-human causality, that is, chemical, physical and biological. However, psychology, with a view to understanding the conduct at the human level of integration, does not need to be complemented with knowledge from the biological and exact areas to study the lived experience. In this way, conducts are understood as always connected social acts that emerge from fields located in macro-social contexts. Therefore, we are not working with the result of an agreement between contradictory intrapsychic forces, but with bonds of concrete people located in social contexts.

In this theoretical context, we always deal with human behaviors, understood as emerging from fields called “affective-emotional sense fields,” which can be defined as emotional substrates underlying human manifestations, whose character is non-conscious. In the realm of concrete psychology, the unconscious dimension is conceived as intersubjectively shaped fields, and not as individual psychic interiority whose content would coincide with the repressed.

The concept of collective imaginary corresponds to a particular type of conduct, meaning what the term assumes in the work of Bleger (1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)). It must be defined as a set of human acts that are not limited to the imaginative activity itself. As a conduct, collective imaginary is expressed mentally, bodily and/or as performance in the external world (Aiello-Vaisberg & Machado, 2008Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J., & Machado, M. C. L. (2008). Pesquisa psicanalítica de imaginários coletivos à luz da teoria dos campos. In J. Monzani & L. R. Monzani (Orgs), Olhar: Fabio Herrmann - uma viagem psicanalítica (pp. 311-324). São Paulo, SP: Pedro & João Editores.). In other words, in this context, the concept of collective imaginary can be defined as conducts that create experiential worlds, so that it is not confused in any way with what is false or specular (Ambrosio, 2013).

In order to facilitate our communication with researchers interested in the theme, but eventually unfamiliar with this theoretical-methodological framework, below we present the investigative procedures through which we operationalize the psychoanalytic method. In this research, which took mommy blog posts as material, the procedures used were:

  1. investigative procedure for post survey and selection;

  2. investigative procedure for post registration;

  3. investigative procedure for post interpretation.

We finished the research fulfilling the reflexive interlocutions. This moment, which corresponds to what is usually called discussion in other empirical works, is characterized by suspending the hovering attention and the association of ideas. Thus, in favor of establishing a reflective theoretical work, we discuss the affective-emotional sense fields, which, strictly speaking, are the research results, in the light of dialogues with other authors.

In order to carry out the investigative procedure for post survey and selection, we conducted a survey on Google using the term “depressão pós-parto blogues” [postpartum depression blogs]. As a result, we obtained a total of 240 links. The content of all electronic addresses was examined in the light of the criteria defined a priori, resulting in 48 posts, taken as a corpus of research material:

  1. posts from Brazilian blogs;

  2. posts written by Internet users who identify themselves as mothers;

  3. posts about postpartum depression.

We must clarify that the third criterion, related to the selection of posts that deal with postpartum depression, corresponds to a methodological artifice that is based on the idea of covert research procedures (Aiello-Vaisberg, 1995Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (1995). O uso de procedimentos projetivos na pesquisa de representações sociais: projeção e transicionalidade. Psicologia USP, 6(2), 103-127. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/3mnzmkh
https://bit.ly/3mnzmkh...
). The covert procedures use the enunciation of an interest that does not exactly coincide with the objective. In other words, we do not take postpartum depression as an object of study or as a research problem. We chose to study posts about postpartum depression as they are configured as a privileged locus for understanding maternal suffering.

Regarding the investigative procedure for material registration, we performed a verbatim transcription of the selected posts in order to save them in a document for research purposes. This was necessary, since content available on the network can eventually be deleted and, thus, access to the selected material can be lost. Below, any data that could possibly identify its authors were excluded. This care was well explained by Townsend and Wallace (2017Townsend, L., & Wallace, C. (2017). The ethics of using social media data in research: a new framework. In K. Woodfield (Ed.), The ethics of online research: advances in research ethics and integrity (Vol. 2, pp. 189-207). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.) with regard to ethical concerns in research with online materials.

For the investigative procedure related to material interpretation, we carried out successive readings of the selected posts in a state of hovering attention and free association of ideas, according to the steps of the psychoanalytic method, in order to interpretively reach the affective-emotional sense fields. At that moment, we were inspired by the watchwords of Herrmann (1979Herrmann, F. (1979). O método da psicanálise. São Paulo, SP: EPU.), which can be considered guides for the creation of psychoanalytic interpretation: “let it arise,” “take into consideration” and “complete the configuration of the emerging sense.” Therefore, if fields are understood as a non-conscious background, but a producer of behaviors, interpretively proposing affective-emotional sense fields corresponds to enunciating a plausible movement of creation, that is, seeking to reach the emotional determinants of behaviors. In order to guarantee the legitimacy of the proposition of the interpretations, that is, the enunciation of the fields, we discussed the 48 posts and our transferential impacts within the scope of the research group. We clarify that, in psychoanalytic research, no interpretation, understood as a result of empirical research, aims to exhaust all the meanings that arise in communications. However, as researchers, we favor a certain interpretative line due to the advancement in scientific knowledge that such a result may raise, in discussion with other authors, in light of the clinical and social repercussions of the research finding.

Reflective interpretations and interlocutions

Reading the material, in a state of hovering attention and free association of ideas, would make it possible to distinguish more than one affective-emotional sense field, that is, more than one interpretative result, as would be expected in a qualitative research with the use of the psychoanalytic method. It is possible to mention, even if concisely, that it would be possible to produce, from the same material, fields connected to women in social demands to assume full responsibility for child care. In this sense, we are faced with an imaginary in which the mother appears as a being endowed with remarkable capacities of dedication to the baby, which was also found in other research, carried out with similar online materials, such as the studies by Schulte et al. (2019Schulte, A. D. A., Gallo-Belluzzo, S. R., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (2019). A experiência emocional de autoras de mommy blogs. Estudos Interdisciplinares em Psicologia, 7(1), 107-130.) and Visintin and Aiello-Vaisberg (2017Visintin, C. D. N., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (2017). Motherhood and social suffering in Brazilian mommy blogs. Revista Psicologia-Teoria e Prática, 19(2), 108-116.).

Nevertheless, the examination of the material of this research allowed highlighting another field that deserves to be focused separately due to the reflections it raises. Thus, we focus on the affective-emotional sense field “My hormones drive me crazy,” which is organized around the fantasy according to which anxious and depressive affections, experienced by mothers during the puerperium, would be determined by hormones and/or neurotransmitters.

Below there are three excerpts from different posts. They correspond to examples of conducts emerging in this field:

When I was already experiencing symptoms of depression, I went to a neurologist who prescribed antidepressants that made me feel worse than before. Then I remembered that during pregnancy my obstetrician recommended that I should look for an endocrinologist, because I’ve undergone [hormonal] changes and started taking thyroid drugs... Perhaps if I had listened to my obstetrician’s recommendation and looked for the endocrinologist earlier, I might not have suffered for 8 months after my son was born.

I had postpartum depression. It was diagnosed about 3 months ago, and now, feeling good again, I choose to share my story with you. A story that may be like that of many other mothers; I hope that with my report they can identify with it, find the strength to seek help, and heal.. I want people to understand that postpartum depression is not something to be ashamed of, it is not a lack of love, it is not a sign of weakness. Postpartum depression is a reality that many mothers experience due to hormonal changes (...) is brought by motherhood and which can be cured. The sooner it is identified, diagnosed and treated, the better.

Hi girl! Everything good? Postpartum depression is a delicate subject, often neglected, and little talked about… Moms are ashamed, blame themselves and hide... What happens? Why does it happen? Well, physiologically, the explanation is that the woman, in the postpartum + breastfeeding period, enters a hormonal roller coaster, with a sudden drop in some hormones and a sudden increase in others… And that, in itself, already makes us feel pretty sensitive, with nerves “on edge.”

When under the influence of this affective-emotional sense field, the mother-Internet user, understood as a transindividual (collective) subject (Goldman, 1974), seems to understand her suffering as determined by brain and/or hormonal functioning. Thus, she seems to disregard her own experiences and relationships as relevant to the genesis of her malaise, as well as the social organization of baby care.

We can understand this phenomenon as dissociation. According to Bleger (1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)), the structure of dissociative conduct refers to contradictory manifestations of what is expressed mentally, bodily and/or as performance in the external world. In the case presented here, we observe dissociations as separations of the mother-Internet user from her own emotional experience, making use of explanations related to infra-human elements, in this case, hormones and/or neurotransmitters.

This configuration leads us to ponder on an aspect from which motherhood can be lived in contemporary times, a period in which positivist scientific knowledge is not only very prestigious, but also easy to be disseminated on the Internet. The association of scientific rigor with knowledge of brain functioning seems to favor an anthropological view according to which the conduct should be explained from the level of biological causality, for which the lived experience would appear as a mere derivative of hormonal and/or neurochemical reactions.

We certainly recognize that all advances in the biological sciences are important since they allow countless human issues to be solved, reducing people’s suffering. It is worth remembering that contemporary technological development allows numerous fetal diseases to be detected in the uterus. In addition, the diagnostic disclosure of a problematic condition is not always made with due consideration of the parents’ emotional experience, so that fears and fantasies end up being activated in a situation permeated by guilt (Cunha, Pereira, Caldeira, & Carneiro, 2016Cunha, A. C. B., Pereira, J. P., Júnior, Caldeira, C. L. V., & Carneiro, V. M. S. P. (2016). Diagnóstico de malformações congênitas: impactos sobre a saúde mental de gestantes. Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 33(4), 601-611. doi: 10.1590/1982-02752016000400004
https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-02752016000...
).

When we turn our attention to the affective-emotional sense field interpreted here, “My hormones drive me crazy,” we approach a vast territory about the relationship between body and mind, a theme well addressed by Bleger (1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)) when he theorized about the so-called “levels of conduct integration.” Even if the conduct can be considered, by other sciences, in terms of levels of infra-human causality, that is, physical, chemical and biological, with regard to psychology, human acts must be approached at the human level, that is, at its highest level of integration.

At the human level, and from a psychological perspective, which focuses on the lived experience, it would be important to understand the conduct as emerging from non-conscious linking fields that are inserted in macrosocial contexts. However, the search for knowledge of what happens at the levels of infra-human causality, although extremely important and necessary, would not be confused with studies on what is happening at the human level.

A disagreement with regard to the levels of integration would lead to a misunderstanding of the human phenomenon itself, that is, of an emergent manifestation of relational fields socially and culturally situated. An example of this type of disagreement would be to understand the sadness that a woman feels in postnatal period as a hormonal and/or neurochemical revolution, failing to understand such affection as an experiential phenomenon. In this way, we would be falling into harmful reductionism instead of positioning ourselves in order to take advantage of knowledge derived from different areas.

If the levels of conduct are not clear, certain highly debatable conceptions, such as that of the “neurochemical self,” can be used. Rose (2003Rose, N. (2003). The neurochemical self and its anomalies. In R. Ericson (Ed.), Risk and Morality (pp. 407-437). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.), from a Foucauldian perspective, called “neurochemical self” a phenomenon that consists of the invocation of the body and neurochemistry by people not only to characterize and identify themselves, but also to understand human life, in the biographical sense that the term should take.

Evidently, we do not deny that emotional phenomena inevitably include the bodily dimension, characteristic of the human way of existence. Nevertheless, we criticize, with Bleger (1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)), the idea that the human levels of causality of conduct can be elucidated by the infra-human levels of causality.

Converging with this view, albeit independently, Rose and Abi-Rached (2013Rose, N., & Abi-Rached, J. M. (2013). Neuro: the new brain sciences and the management of the mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press.) point to the incoherence of equalizing some terminologies, such as brain, hormones, neurotransmitters, self, experience, and personality. Furthermore, we must not forget that this equation, which, at first glance, seems to mean mere epistemological and conceptual misunderstanding, probably does not correspond to an innocent error, since it serves the interests of certain economic sectors, mainly linked to pharmacological production and selling medical exams and treatments, while conspiring against the perception that many human sufferings stem directly from the way we organize our lives and not from exclusively organic disorders that can be resolved via medication. With wide dissemination in social spaces, including on the Internet and mommy blogs (Hunter, 2015Hunter, A. (2015). Lesbian mommy blogging in Canada: documenting subtle homophobia in Canadian society and building community online. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 19(2), 212-229. doi: 10.1080/10894160.2015.969077
https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2015.96...
), this view contributes to the legitimation of the use of drugs in order to alter or modulate emotions.

Thus, based on the strategies of different groups, such as industries, health professionals and governments, all the complexity of human life would be reduced to a product of biochemical combinations. Such genetic and physiologically determined variations would explain the experience so that people could therefore undergo pharmacological treatment (Rotondaro, 2013Rotondaro, T. (2013). Novos projetos de cidadania biológica: a (re)construção racial dos selves neuroquímicos. Sociedade e Estado, 28(1), 163-178. doi: 10.1590/S0102-69922013000100009
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-6992201300...
). The importance of human ties and macro-social contexts is considerably reduced by this type of positioning, which makes it difficult to change concrete conditions in people’s lives, restricting the opportunity for a more authentic life.

We think that, according to the field “My hormones drive me crazy” related to the collective imaginary of mothers-Internet users about maternal suffering, experiences of psychological malaise would derive from biological factors. We fear the consequences of using these explanations at a time when the mother turns to meet the newborn’s needs, properly considering the organization of care for babies and children in each context of our society. It is possible to understand that, in line with better attending to the condition of the person as a social being, it would be more appropriate to consider the importance of the puerperal woman being well received by the nuclear and extended family, in addition to community ties and institutional services, so that they could support her in that period. Thus, on the basis of what personal maturation itself would allow (Winnicott, 1960/1995Winnicott, D. W. (1995). The theory of the parente-infant relationship. In D. W. Winnicott, The maturational processes and the facilitating environment. Studies in the theory of emotional development (pp. 37-55). London: Karnac Books. (Trabalho original publicado em 1960)), the personal integration of the woman-mother would not be disturbed.

We think, therefore, that the drama of mothers unfolds in specific contexts, which may or may not favor their suffering. Recent studies, including those by Aching and Granato (2018Aching, M. C., & Granato, T. M. M. (2018). Role of a support network for refugee mothers. Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 35(2), 137-147. doi: 10.1590/1982-02752018000200003
https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-02752018000...
), Schulte et al. (2019Schulte, A. D. A., Gallo-Belluzzo, S. R., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (2019). A experiência emocional de autoras de mommy blogs. Estudos Interdisciplinares em Psicologia, 7(1), 107-130.), Scobie (2017Scobie, O. (2017). Postpartum depression and intensive mothering: how western cultural expectations of motherhood shape maternal mental health in new parents. Canadian Social Work, 19(1), 39-50.) and Visintin and Aiello-Vaisberg (2017Visintin, C. D. N., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (2017). Motherhood and social suffering in Brazilian mommy blogs. Revista Psicologia-Teoria e Prática, 19(2), 108-116.), denounce that there are expectations according to which child care should be the exclusive responsibility of mothers, which significantly favors maternal emotional malaise. Thus, the authors highlight how motherhood should be understood as a socially determined phenomenon. In turn, we perceive that, for a more rigorous understanding of maternal suffering, it is necessary to move away from postulations according to which mothers’ psychological discomfort would be the result of organic substances, such as hormones.

It seems that, in relation to this field of affective-emotional sense, human life is invoked as a biological phenomenon, in order to supplant the biography and the meanings of human acts.

We remember that Schneider (1951Schneider, K. (1951). Psicopatologia clínica. Madrid: Paz Motalvo.), apparently, does not believe in the possibility of understanding that some behaviors would be charged with meaning. He comments: “Is it possible to conceive that ‘the soul’ can transform itself in such a grotesque way without it being caused by an illness of the body?” (Schneider, 1951Schneider, K. (1951). Psicopatologia clínica. Madrid: Paz Motalvo., p. 23). Such a positioning is absolutely unacceptable to those who rely on psychoanalysis, because as a method, as Politzer (1928/2004Politzer, G. (2004). Crítica dos fundamentos da Psicologia: psicologia e psicanálise. São Paulo, SP: Unimep. (Trabalho original publicado em 1928)) demonstrated, it is based on the revolutionary assumption that all human conduct is full of meaning, regardless of how strange or cruel it may appear, at first glance, to an external observer or to the person himself/herself.

We understand, with the help of Bleger (1963/1977Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta. Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)), that it is necessary to approach the human phenomenon, due to its complexity, in terms of perspectives and levels. The perspectives would correspond to the human sciences, which share the same object of study, that is, the human being, generating comprehensive knowledge. On the other hand, objective knowledge could be produced, by the natural sciences, through the consideration of infrahuman determinations of a physical, chemical and biological character. Knowledge generated from human perspectives and from infra-human levels can contribute decisively to the solution of the most diverse problems, such as social suffering associated with contemporary motherhood. However, we warn about the confusion, of theoretical and epistemological character, between perspectives and levels, in order to avoid reductionism in the study of human conduct. We point out, then, that understanding maternal suffering as solely derived from the action of hormones and/or neurotransmitters can hamper transformation in concrete situations that oppress the mother and make it difficult to overcome defenses that cost her a more integrated and authentic life.

Referências

  • Abetz, J., & Moore, J. (2018). “Welcome to the Mommy Wars, Ladies”: making Sense of the Ideology of Combative Mothering in Mommy Blogs. Communication, Culture and Critique, 11(2), 265-281. doi: 10.1093/ccc/tcy008
    » https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcy008
  • Aching, M. C., & Granato, T. M. M. (2018). Role of a support network for refugee mothers. Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 35(2), 137-147. doi: 10.1590/1982-02752018000200003
    » https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-02752018000200003
  • Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (1995). O uso de procedimentos projetivos na pesquisa de representações sociais: projeção e transicionalidade. Psicologia USP, 6(2), 103-127. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/3mnzmkh
    » https://bit.ly/3mnzmkh
  • Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J., & Machado, M. C. L. (2008). Pesquisa psicanalítica de imaginários coletivos à luz da teoria dos campos. In J. Monzani & L. R. Monzani (Orgs), Olhar: Fabio Herrmann - uma viagem psicanalítica (pp. 311-324). São Paulo, SP: Pedro & João Editores.
  • Alves, M. B., & Poli, M. C. (2016). When a woman is mother: feminine jouissance in motherhood. Ágora: Estudos em Teoria Psicanalítica, 19(2), 191-207. doi: 10.1590/S1516-14982016002003
    » https://doi.org/10.1590/S1516-14982016002003
  • Bleger, J. (1977). Psicologia de la conducta Buenos Aires: Paidós. (Trabalho original publicado em 1963)
  • Carreteiro, T. C. (2003). Sofrimentos sociais em debate. Psicologia USP, 14(3), 57-72.
  • Cunha, A. C. B., Pereira, J. P., Júnior, Caldeira, C. L. V., & Carneiro, V. M. S. P. (2016). Diagnóstico de malformações congênitas: impactos sobre a saúde mental de gestantes. Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 33(4), 601-611. doi: 10.1590/1982-02752016000400004
    » https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-02752016000400004
  • Das, V. (1996). Critical events: an anthropological perspective on contemporary India Oxford, MA: Oxford University Press.
  • Fonseca, C. (2011). The de-kinning of birthmothers: reflections on maternity and being human. Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology, 8(2), 307-339. doi: 10.1590/S1809-43412011000200014
    » https://doi.org/10.1590/S1809-43412011000200014
  • Greenberg, J. R., & Mitchell, S. A. (1983). Object relations in psychoanalytic theory Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Greinert, B. R. M., & Milani, R. G. (2015). Depressão pós-parto: uma compreensão psicossocial. Psicologia: Teoria e Prática, 17(1), 26-36.
  • Goldmann, L. (1974). Pensée dialectique et sujet transindividuel. In L. Goldmann, La création culturette dans la société moderne (pp. 121-154). Paris: Gonthier.
  • Gottlieb, A., & DeLoache, J. S. (2016). A world of babies: imagined childcare guides for eight societies Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Henderson, A., Harmon, S., & Newman, H. (2016). The price mothers pay, even when they are not buying it: mental health consequences of idealized motherhood. Sex Roles, 74(11-12), 512-526. doi: 10.1007/s11199-015-0534-5
    » https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0534-5
  • Herrmann, F. (1979). O método da psicanálise São Paulo, SP: EPU.
  • Hollway, W. (2016). Feminism, psychology and becoming a mother. Feminism & Psychology, 26(2), 137-152. doi: 10.1177/0959353515625662
    » https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353515625662
  • Hunter, A. (2015). Lesbian mommy blogging in Canada: documenting subtle homophobia in Canadian society and building community online. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 19(2), 212-229. doi: 10.1080/10894160.2015.969077
    » https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2015.969077
  • Kleinman, A., Das, V. & Lock, M. (1997). Social suffering Los Angeles: University of California Press.
  • Märtsin, M. (2018). Becoming an employed mother: conceptualising adult identity development through semiotic cultural lens. Women’s Studies International Forum, (68), 11-18.
  • Politzer, G. (2004). Crítica dos fundamentos da Psicologia: psicologia e psicanálise São Paulo, SP: Unimep. (Trabalho original publicado em 1928)
  • Renault, E. (2010). A critical theory of social suffering. Critical Horizons, 11(2), 221-241.
  • Ricoeur, P. (1977). Da interpretação: ensaio sobre Freud Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Imago.
  • Rogoff, B. (2005). A natureza cultural do desenvolvimento humano São Paulo, SP: Artmed.
  • Rose, N. (2003). The neurochemical self and its anomalies. In R. Ericson (Ed.), Risk and Morality (pp. 407-437). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
  • Rose, N., & Abi-Rached, J. M. (2013). Neuro: the new brain sciences and the management of the mind Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Rotondaro, T. (2013). Novos projetos de cidadania biológica: a (re)construção racial dos selves neuroquímicos. Sociedade e Estado, 28(1), 163-178. doi: 10.1590/S0102-69922013000100009
    » https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-69922013000100009
  • Sas, S. A. (2004). L’interprétation dans le trans-subjectif: Réflexions sur l’ambiguïté et les espaces psychiques. Psychothérapies, 24(4), 207-213.
  • Schechter, L. M. S., & Perelson, S. (2017). Separar-se da mãe para tornar-se mãe: a criação do espaço de concepção. Psicologia Clínica, 29(3), 403-427.
  • Schneider, K. (1951). Psicopatologia clínica Madrid: Paz Motalvo.
  • Schulte, A. A., Gallo-Belluzzo, S. R., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. (2016). Postagens em blogs pessoais: aproximação do acontecer humano em pesquisas psicanalíticas. Psicologia Revista, 25(2), 227-241. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/3sRRR2X
    » https://bit.ly/3sRRR2X
  • Schulte, A. D. A., Gallo-Belluzzo, S. R., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (2019). A experiência emocional de autoras de mommy blogs. Estudos Interdisciplinares em Psicologia, 7(1), 107-130.
  • Scobie, O. (2017). Postpartum depression and intensive mothering: how western cultural expectations of motherhood shape maternal mental health in new parents. Canadian Social Work, 19(1), 39-50.
  • Townsend, L., & Wallace, C. (2017). The ethics of using social media data in research: a new framework. In K. Woodfield (Ed.), The ethics of online research: advances in research ethics and integrity (Vol. 2, pp. 189-207). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
  • Visintin, C. D. N., & Aiello-Vaisberg, T. M. J. (2017). Motherhood and social suffering in Brazilian mommy blogs. Revista Psicologia-Teoria e Prática, 19(2), 108-116.
  • Werlang, R., & Mendes, J. M. R. (2013). Sofrimento social. Serviço Social e Sociedade, (116), 743-768.
  • Winnicott, D. W. (1995). The theory of the parente-infant relationship. In D. W. Winnicott, The maturational processes and the facilitating environment. Studies in the theory of emotional development (pp. 37-55). London: Karnac Books. (Trabalho original publicado em 1960)

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    18 June 2021
  • Date of issue
    2021

History

  • Received
    13 June 2018
  • Reviewed
    17 Aug 2020
  • Accepted
    08 Mar 2021
Instituto de Psicologia da Universidade de São Paulo Av. Prof. Mello Moraes, 1721 - Bloco A, sala 202, Cidade Universitária Armando de Salles Oliveira, 05508-900 São Paulo SP - Brazil - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: revpsico@usp.br