College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Philosophy and Religious Studies
Rank
Distinguished Professor
The Maternal Tug: Ambivalence, Identity, and Agency
Type of Work
Book
Publication Information
Page Count: 292
Demeter Press
Bradford, ON, Canada
Publication Date: January 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77258-213-0
Description of Work
While the existence of maternal ambivalence has been evident for centuries, it has only recently been recognized as central to the lived experience of mothering. This accessible, yet intellectually rigorous, interdisciplinary collection demonstrates its presence and meaning in relation to numerous topics such as pregnancy, birth, Caesarean sections, sleep, self-estrangement, helicopter parenting, poverty, environmental degradation, depression, anxiety, queer mothering, disability, neglect, filicide and war rape. Its authors deny the assumption that mothers who experience ambivalence are bad, evil, unnatural, or insane. Moreover, historical records and cross-cultural narratives indicate that maternal ambivalence appears in a wide range of circumstances; but that it becomes unmanageable in circumstances of inequity, deprivation and violence. From this premise, the authors in this collection raise imperative ethical, social, and political questions, suggesting possibilities for vital cultural transformations. These candid explorations demand we rethink our basic assumptions about how mothering is experienced in everyday life.
Rights Statement
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
The Maternal Tug: Ambivalence, Identity, and Agency
While the existence of maternal ambivalence has been evident for centuries, it has only recently been recognized as central to the lived experience of mothering. This accessible, yet intellectually rigorous, interdisciplinary collection demonstrates its presence and meaning in relation to numerous topics such as pregnancy, birth, Caesarean sections, sleep, self-estrangement, helicopter parenting, poverty, environmental degradation, depression, anxiety, queer mothering, disability, neglect, filicide and war rape. Its authors deny the assumption that mothers who experience ambivalence are bad, evil, unnatural, or insane. Moreover, historical records and cross-cultural narratives indicate that maternal ambivalence appears in a wide range of circumstances; but that it becomes unmanageable in circumstances of inequity, deprivation and violence. From this premise, the authors in this collection raise imperative ethical, social, and political questions, suggesting possibilities for vital cultural transformations. These candid explorations demand we rethink our basic assumptions about how mothering is experienced in everyday life.
Biographical Statement
Dr. Sarah LaChance Adams is Florida Blue Distinguished Professor and Director of the Florida Blue Center for Ethics. She is also the Managing Editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. She has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Oregon and a Masters degree in psychology from Seattle University.
Her research is centered on the ethics of intimate relationships—including that between mothers and children, and between romantic partners—as contextualized in the social, political, and material world.
She is the author and co-editor of several books. Her current project is entitled An Ethics of Erotic Errors