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The author of the prologue - the only man to participate in this collection - tells us that it is “a book written by women that must be read also by men”. That's right. The text gathers essays by 17 women psychoanalysts from an array of countries - Peru, Argentina, Italy, Mexico, France, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil. It shows, however, a marked unity of style and opinion. The book is traversed by psychoanalytic reflections on a topic that, having recurred since the beginning of time, is still new and unsettling - even mysterious. A biological phenomenon, motherhood - both a universal and a highly intimate event - transcends the natural realm to go deep into the field of feminine subjectivity, of desire, and of socialization into the milieu in which it occurs.
Readers will find their bearings very easily thanks to the great job done by the three editors - Rosa Zelaya, Johanna Mendoza Talledo, and Elvira Soto de Dupuy. They have structured the collection in such a way that reading becomes effortless. They all belong to the Asociación Peruana de Psicoterapia Psicoanalitica de Niños y Adolescentes (APPPNA) (Peruvian Association for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy), of whose professional practice motherhood and mother-child relationships constitute a privileged aspect. The various articles are grouped in four parts based on connecting threads that might be summarized as follows. The first one gathers the psychoanalytic concepts that pulsate throughout the text, drawn particularly from Winnicott's oeuvre (many of the papers were presented at a conference in his honour). The second one contributes reflections on changes that take place in women's minds and bodies throughout their life-cycle, especially during pregnancy. The authors stress the regressive movement experienced by women during this stage, as well as the situation of ‘psychic transparency’ (M. Bydlowski) that distinguishes it. The third part tackles the repercussion