A research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
of MA Clinical Psychology in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017Psychodynamic psychotherapists through their vocational training, and especially through
developmental and psychoanalytic theories, are exposed to intense discursive and
theoretical psychological models of ideal motherhood and childhood development that they
use to inform their therapeutic practice. How this knowledge impacts their mothering
experience and practice has not been explored. This study examines how the identities of
psychotherapist and mother inform, shape, enrich and conflict with one another, for a group
of nine psychodynamic psychotherapist mothers who are based in Johannesburg, South
Africa. Primarily, the findings of this study suggest that the identity shifts involved in
becoming both a psychotherapist and a mother are a continuous process. Alongside the
negotiation of the relational demands of an infant, psychotherapist mothers, in particular,
experience transitions in their relationships to theory. The voice of theory, which was found
to act as a third that is analytic and/or anti-analytic, was a very important theme that was
found to influence their mothering experiences and identities. The experience appears to be
one of constantly evolving re-integration. Overall, the challenge for psychotherapist mothers
is to reflect on their relationships to theory as a psychotherapist, in order to acknowledge
and explore those aspects that feel punitive and those that feel helpful.MC201
