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Trapped between madness and motherhood: Mothering alone

ABSTRACT This article examines the experience of motherhood among 14 women with mental health problems. The aim is to discuss the subjective meaning of being a mother with mental health problems through the perspective of structural factors such as discourses on motherhood and mental illness. The article shows how these mothers are caught in a bind between the discourses of mentally ill mothers as “deviant” and the current ideology of “intensive mothering.” The empirical material reveals two main, interwoven patterns of identity work: the struggle for normality, and how to handle a self-identity as a “dangerous” mother. The mothers understood the stress and difficulties they experienced as personal problems, resulting in self-blaming, feelings of loneliness, and a resistance towards expressing a need for help with parenting issues. The findings suggest that understanding these mothers’ ambivalence towards intervention as a kind of complex identity work—rather than as reluctance to receive help, or denial of their own problems—might be a way for professional helpers to build a confident relationship with mentally ill mothers.