Keynote address: The Compassionate Mind Foundation Conference.
12th October, 2022, 9.30-10.30am, Edinburgh and on-line
SYNOPSIS
In Western culture, both the lay public and mental health professionals tend to believe that mothers evolved to love all their children instinctually and unconditionally. In contrast, any mother who feels ambivalent or hostile towards her child is typically seen as unnatural, and a mother who maltreats her child is seen as behaving pathologically.
In this presentation I will draw on evolutionary research to challenge this widespread view of motherhood.
In particular, I will explain how, throughout human evolutionary history, raising children has required mothers to negotiate a series of complex trade-offs, and argue that maternal negativity can sometimes arise from this.
I will also discuss how the evolved pressure to conform to group norms can drive mothers to maltreat their children.
Finally, I will describe how children have evolved to learn about mothering from what they experience whilst growing up, and argue that this can tragically lead to patterns of maltreatment being passed down generations.
The goals of this presentation are (1) to foster a more evolutionarily valid and compassionate understanding of motherhood, and (2), to show how this understanding can contribute to both clinical work with faltering mothers, and to programs focused on preventing the maltreatment of children by their mothers.
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Public Lecture, Royal Society of Arts (RSA), London.
© 2021 Daniela F. Sieff. All rights reserved.