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At the Institute of Psychology at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, we have been conducting research about different psychoanalytic frameworks, based on Donald Winnicott's ideas about the patient's creative potential. This includes a workshop combining a sewing and psychotherapy program geared to help pregnant women prepare for motherhood.
It is very common in Brazil for pregnant women to take classes on motherhood at a hospital. Although these classes are designed to dispel anxieties about childbirth, breast-feeding, and baby care, sometimes the information about possible complications in pregnancy can be alarming, so we try to provide a holding environment where they can feel safe as they explore their fears and concerns about maternity. Our confidence in the creativity of our patients (Winnicott, , ), has allowed us to work as facilitators of their emotional development as we develop frameworks designed to keep the dialogue between clinical demands and methodological coherence alive. My work with one patient, whom I will call Violet, illustrates the work we are doing. (All the names in this case history have been changed, and I have substituted the names of flowers for their real names.)
When I first met Violet, she was four months pregnant and looking for “a different therapy.” Years before, when Violet was sixteen, and right after the death of her father, she began to suffer from panic attacks. Despite the fact that these had been largely mitigated by the several psychotherapies she underwent at that time, the painful symptoms returned during pregnancy. She was particularly terrified at the idea of being seized with