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At first glance this book appears to be a collection of essays on a variety of clinical subjects. While each of the ten chapters can in fact stand alone, they are unified by some common themes: what the author proposes as a frequently found dynamic of role reversal in her female patients; the centrality of the oedipal complex; the importance of bisexuality; and the recurring effects of trauma throughout the life cycle. Reading Maria Bergmann's rich clinical material, we become witness to her patients' attempts to cope with trauma, to make changes in the course of treatment, and to integrate these changes creatively in their lives. We are witness also to a parallel process within the author. Here we see a senior analyst at work: sharing her experience over many years, demonstrating how a traditionally trained Freudian analyst has integrated the many changes in psychoanalytic theory and technique into her current thinking and practice.
In the first chapter, Bergmann lays down the central dynamic of many of her cases, which will appear in the chapters to follow: mother-daughter role reversal, a crucial “genetic turning point” in her patients. During their childhoods with a narcissistically disturbed mother, the patients each took care of their mother's needs. This role reversal was accompanied by unfulfilled yearnings for mothering, unconscious wishes for symbiotic relationships, strong negative oedipal desires, and defenses against fears of reengulfment and abandonment. Adding to the picture were precociously sexualized relationships with their fathers and increased wishes for care from them in compensation for insufficient care from their mothers. Bisexual fantasies, gender confusion, and unresolved oedipal issues hampered further relationships. Here and throughout the book Bergmann clearly emphasizes her belief in the role of the parents in the pathology of their children.
In the second chapter these ideas are elaborated with the idea of the “dead” mother. In the inte