(M)Other Re-spect: Maternal Subjectivity, the Ready-made mother-monster and The Ethics of Respecting

Abstract

Maternal subjectivity, which contains pre-Oedipal and post-Oedipal positions, is also a carrier and transmitter of feminine-matrixial connectivity that is charged by-and charges-specific modalities of affected encounter-eventing and makes their effects specific. Maternal subjectivity works inside the subject by inspiration. As a way of beginning I would like to make two points that will carry us through this paper. Here is the first point: The infant meets the maternal subject via its own primary affective compassion. I view the effect of primary compassion as a primal psychic access to the other. It arises before, after and also alongside abjection. Being primal, it is not a reaction but an arousal and, like anxiety, a signal. Compassion signals contact and connection, yet it is not reactive. Contacting yet not being reactive-here is a psychic potential for subjective freedom. Primary affective awe arises too during being-with and becoming-with. When the affections of awe and compassion arise in an encounter they counterbalance abjection. They counterbalance early forms of fear-shame and fear-guilt charged with anger. In their more elaborated forms, they contribute to the transformation of fear-shame and fear-guilt into mature non-reactive forms-ethical shame and ethical guilt, and also, they directly effectuate forces of freedom and resistance. Here is the second point: Respecting the parental figures of the patient is a major part of the holding that must be offered by any kind of therapy. This respecting, transmitted by inspiration too, doesn't have to wait for forgiveness to arise; respect has its own originary sources. Holding (the patient) by respecting (their human surrounding, past and present, and the maternal and paternal subjectivities in particular) all along-this is the holding atmosphere inside which forgiveness will grow in the process of healing. Bracha Ettinger, (M)Other Respect: Maternal Subjectivity, the Ready-made mother-monster and The Ethics of Respecting Studies in the Maternal, 2 (1) 2010, www.mamsie.bbk.ac.uk 2 Feminine-matrixial encounter-eventing means differeciating and differentiating in reencountering another , a non-I, or few other non-I(s), in a duration of pregnance. The coemergence of two or few I(s) and non-I(s) over time stands for transubjectivity and transjectivity, which are not endless multiplicity or endless transgressivity or endless fragmentation. After birth, as a continuity from the prenatal human stage, the transjective potentiality enters and informs the first post-natal affective arousals. Allowing ourselves to think about the prebirth stage and position in each human subjective beginning is allowing ourselves to consider singular transjectivity before and alongside subjectivity, and realise the impact of the transjective on the subjective sphere. The knowledge and recognition of limited transmissivity-limited by each singular affective encounter-eventing-gives us ethical tools for resisting the endless transjectivity that traverses us, as well as for resisting our...

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