title: A spectrum of shadowed mirroring.
abstract: The central focus of this paper is to explore and extend Kohut's theory of maternal mirroring and to place it within the current context of psychoanalytic thinking. Kohut believed a child must experience "positive" mirroring from his or her mother in infancy and beyond to ensure development of a healthy self. Kohut alludes, however, to a possible situation in which the mother's face, metaphorically a mirror, can appear "faceless" to her child. From this I have inferred the concept of what I shall call "shadowed mirroring." Clinical and literary examples show that distorted, "shadowed" mirroring appears on a spectrum, with passive mirroring at one end and hostile (either verbal or nonverbal) mirroring on the other; some individuals experience both. I then consider how "shadowed mirroring," especially hostile mirroring, can be understood within the twin contexts of the overall mother-child relationship and present-day Intersubjective/Relational thinking that is both bidirectional and co-constructed. Shadowed mirroring can lead to severe personality dysfunction along the borderline-narcissistic range, as well as to difficulties in the areas of identity formation, failure of self-cohesiveness, and the blunting of certain humane qualities like empathy.
authors.affiliation: Queens Consultation Center, Rego Park, New York, USA. mwanamaker1@mac.com
authors.forename: Melissa C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wanamaker
mesh_terms: D001601:Bereavement; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D009769:Object Attachment; D010553:Personality Development; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011572:Psychoanalysis / Q000266:history*; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012649:Self Concept