“My Mother in My Bedroom”: A Case Study of Infertility and Mother—Daughter Fusion

The paper presents a case study of a young woman with infertility problems that had no medical solution. In the course of therapy it was clear that the patient suffered from a developmental inhibition in which both her fertility and her creativity were blocked. The process of therapy enabled her both to become pregnant within four months and to complete her thesis within one more year and a half. The developmental inhibition is described within the concepts of the creativity theory (Kris, 1956). According to this view the cause of the developmental inhibition is a personal myth carried out in this case by the women in the patients family. The way of working through is

identical in the case of becoming pregnant and in the case of completing the thesis: The disappointment from the maternal original object of love leads the patient toward her father and further disappointments. When she finally believes in her own creativity, she is able to overcome her developmental inhibition probably achieving a more mature state of separation-individuation.