Being a Couple and Developing the Capacity for Creative Parenting: A Psychoanalytic Perspective

The idea of an internal creative couple will be explored in relation to parenting, of whatever parental configuration. Key psychic developments that contribute to this, especially the primary relationship with mother or caregiver, the Oedipal situation and adolescence are described. It is suggested that some parenting difficulties can thought about within this framework, for example a parents own need to be parented, the tension between being a couple and being parents, and an alone parent state of mind. She concludes by reflecting on some difficult to engage with realities that affect the capacity to sustain an internal creative couple state of mind, and to parent creatively.

1. Describe one way in which a ‘mother-baby couple’ might manifest in the adult couple relationship
2. Describe one kind of parenting dynamic linked to unresolved issues in earlier psychic development
3. Describe one of the possible difficulties for anyone in maintaining a creative parenting relationship