Paradoxos da maternidade na síndrome de Prader-will

Abstract

Assuming that the birth of a deficient child constitutes a narcisistic wound to its mother, this work aims to analyze the effects of the birth of a child affected by the Prader-Willi syndrome, concerning its mother s psychism and subjectivity. This genetic syndrome is rare and unknown by most of the scientific community; its main symptom is bing eating, which, if it is not adequately controlled, may lead to death due to overeating diseases. The permanent need of a vigilant and controlling position in relation to the child s feeding brings important consequences to the mother s subjectivity, once feeding a child is a strong sign of motherhood. Moreover, eating, a pleasure per se, is now seen as something dangerous and threatening, and the solution families almost always find is to build a protected nest where the child is isolated in the name of the preservation of life. It is presented a case study of a mother of a child affected by the Prader-Willi syndrome, and the researcher conducted two clinical semi-directed interviews that were analyzed according to Psychoanalysis. This study showed two paradoxical positions: first, the dilemma between the desire to meet the requirements of the motherhood ideals and the necessity of controlling the child s voracity, seen as a violent act. Second, antagonical behaviors concerning feeding the child that the family must follow according to the symptomatology. Besides, it is proposed a reflexion about the conflict between the idealization of the imaginarily perfect child and the bereavement for the birth of a deficient child