The Man Who Wasn’t There: an analysis of discursive productions on the loneliness of mothers

Journal title PSICOLOGIA DI COMUNITA’
Author/s Elisabetta Camussi
Publishing Year 2011 Issue 2010/2
Language Italian Pages 11 P. 31-41 File size 646 KB
DOI 10.3280/PSC2010-002004
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Based on a previous research on social representations of motherhood (Camussi, 2009), the paper investigates "the loneliness of mothers" through the analysis of discursive production of a group of women (working mothers, well educated, resident in Milan, Italy) with an experience of a non-pathological motherhood. The results show that the loneliness the women experiment is an unexpected and unpleasant discovery. It depends on: 1) the presence of partners acting as "new involved fathers", but often not adequate to capture the complexity of the maternal role, 2) the lack of family and social networks providing women with a sense of empowermen t through sharing support and reducing the investment on the marital partner.

Keywords: Social representations, motherhood, loneliness, new involved father, social network, feminist research approach

Elisabetta Camussi, L’uomo che non c’era: un’analisi delle produzioni discorsive sulla solitudine delle madri in "PSICOLOGIA DI COMUNITA’" 2/2010, pp 31-41, DOI: 10.3280/PSC2010-002004