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When I thought about how babies and their parents are affected by the changes we are experiencing during the pandemic period, I noticed some changes in the applications to a therapist of families for their babies in my clinical experience. Observing that parents seek more support during the termination of breastfeeding in this period led me to think about the separation of the baby from the breast and the earliest relationships with the mother, from a psychoanalytic perspective.
The termination of breastfeeding not only causes anxiety due to the loss of the satisfying breast that gives milk to baby, but from a psychoanalytic point of view, it also evokes the threat that the good objects that have been internalised through breast milk will turn into bad objects. Disappointing for both the baby and the mother, the absence of the lactating breast can be like falling into a void. How is it possible to establish a new equilibrium after such a difficult experience, so that the bonds between baby and mother can survive?
I will try to find the answer to this question through what I observed in my psychoanalytic psychotherapy work with a boy who had a noticeable developmental delay after the cessation of breastfeeding. What I experienced in the sessions with D. was truly dizzying, as I will describe in the following sections of the text. In addition to the psychoanalysts and the concepts they put forward, the contributions of my infant observation experience is another important issue that I hope to convey.