Parent-child relationship in psychogenesis of female psychogenic infertility (psychoanalytic perspective)

Abstract

Horney, D. Pines, T. Benedek, M. Bydlowski, F. Tyson and R. Tyson, K. Brisch. The object of this research is the phenomenon of psychogenic infertility in female development. The subject is the parent-child relationship in the context of women with psychogenic infertility. The article reveals the unspecified features of development of women with infertility: personality traits, leading mental conflicts, fixations, defense mechanisms, type of attachment, experience of object relationship. The article traces the dependence of woman’s reproductive function in symptom cluster of infertility on her psyche, as well as influence of object relationship and attachment pattern on the occurrence of mental conflicts that lead to infertility. The following possible factors of psychogenic infertility are determined: 1. Pathological fixation in the early infantile period. Inability to separate from the mother, 2. Inability to identify with the mother. 3. Infertility as defense against regression, i.e. fear to encounter internal conflicts.  4. Hatred and ambivalent attitude towards the mother. Unwillingness to pass on the “mandate of life”.  5. Confusion of identity, improper gender-role identification with the mother due to improper distribution of roles in family, disturbance of personal boundaries,  and pathological symbiosis. The article reveals similar prerequisites for the formation of psychogenic infertility: type of attachment, disturbance of early object relationship, leading mental conflict, basic defense, and the impact of transgenerational experience. Defensive strategies that are intended for coping with intense inner anxiety create an unconscious compromise between mental state and body, which leads to psychogenic infertility.