Psikanaliz Yazıları; 2005;(11):65-76
Yaşamın Başlangıcında Beden ve Söz
E Abrevaya
Body and [language] at The Beginning of Life
The psychoanalytical approach to premature babies indicates to what extent [language] is determinant in their psychical development, which is in close interaction with the physiological development. Catherine Mathelin, who has been working as a psychoanalyst in the reanimation service of Saint Denis hospital, considers that premature babies are the persons who most crave for words. Words those are necessary to give meaning to their brutal separation from the uterus environment and their placement in the incubator. This sudden rupture in the pregnancy makes impossible for the mother to mourn because in order to accept to lose something, you have to feel that you possess it. On the other hand, the premature baby can not help her (his) mother to restore her maternal feelings because the baby who is in the incubator now, deprives her from her (his) look, smell, contact and her (his) need for her (his) mother. The psychoanalyst allows parents to express their fears, anguishes and guilt feelings and also she puts to words the baby's hesitations in her (his) struggle to survive. Thus, the psychoanalyst together, with the doctor and nurses, try to communicate to the mother she is absolutely indispensable for her child's life. At that point only the mother can accept the separation of the baby, provoked by the sudden interruption of pregnancy.