Presentation at the ASK ALL SPECIAL KIDS Open Day on November 8, 2014 Introduction to the notion of cultural discourses pertaining to motherhood and how three discourses were produced and interrupted by new ideas. Concerns the discourses of breastfeeding, the self-sacrificing mother and childcare. Mothers who think that they don't live up to cultural discourses - or societal expectations - may suffer from guilt or even shame. This can be called "mistaken shame". How do we disengage from the effects of mistaken shame?

1. Mother’s Guilt: The cultural
discourses of motherhood
Workshop ASK All Special Kids Geneva November 8, 2014
Kate Lindley Scheidegger, Ph.D., Committee member
ASPEDAH

2. The social construction of a mother’s identity amidst
the confluence of motherhood discourses.
Doctoral dissertation
1. My own experience related
through the writings
(documents, reports, letters,
e-mails) dating back to before
the birth of my son up to
2004.
2. Interviews with 5 mothers
whose children were
diagnosed with ADHD in the
Swiss-French area about the
helpful and unhelpful
messages they received.
3. An in-depth cultural analysis
http://www.taosinstitute.net/kate-
lindley-scheidegger1
Autoethnography is a form of self-
reflection and writing that explores the
researcher's personal experience and
connects this autobiographical story
to wider cultural, political, and social
meanings and understandings.
It differs from ethnography —a
qualitative research method in which
a researcher uses participant
observation and interviews in order to
gain a deeper understanding of a
group's culture— in that
autoethnography focuses on the
writer's subjective experience rather
than, or in interaction with, the beliefs
and practices of others.
(Thank you to Wikipedia.org)

3. Taking apart cultural discourses
 In whose interests is the discourse operating?
 What (and whose) values, beliefs, and concepts are
espoused, and what others are neglected?
 What pre-established knowledge or belief systems
are drawn upon to create meaning?
 What types of social differences are established or
perpetuated?”
Deborah Lupton. Toward the development of critical
health communication praxis, Health Communication,
Vol. 6 (1), pp. 55-67, 1993

4. An analysis of cultural discourses
 Mothers should breastfeed.
 How breastfeeding got a boost from Rousseau in 1762
 Mothers should sacrifice themselves for their
children.
 Sociobiology tells us, mothers aren’t actually similar to
animals.
 Mothers should stay at home and look after their
children themselves.
 How childcare differs in different cultures
Warm warning: This is a cultural analysis looking at
how changes have been brought about in the advice
that is given to mothers. This is in no way a criticism of

5. Mothers should breastfeed.
 In the 18th century in
Paris, mothers hired wet-
nurses to breastfeed their
newly born infants.
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s
book Emile, Or On
Education published in
1762 exhorted mothers to
breastfeed.
 Explicitly stated that
mothers were responsible
for the physical well-being
and the survival of their
children.

6. Mothers should sacrifice themselves for
their children.
 In the 19th century
Darwin and Spencer
used their scientific
theories in biology to
promote the idea that
women had a natural
essence that was
similar to animals.
 Sociobiology today finds
a number of biased
studies (S. Hrdy Blaffer)
which elevated certain
ideas favorable to men.

7. Mothers should look after their children
themselves.
 Dr. Freud’s theories
situated mental health
problems in the
relationship between
child and mother.
 Mothers became
responsible for their
children’s psychological
well-being.
 Anthropological studies
show that emotionally
well-balanced children
can have up to 14
carers a day.

8. The definition of guilt
 1 : the fact of having committed a breach of conduct
especially violating law and involving a penalty;
broadly : guilty conduct
 2 a : the state of one who has committed an offense
especially consciously
 b : feelings of culpability especially for imagined
offenses or from a sense of inadequacy : self-
reproach
 3 : a feeling of culpability for offenses
Thanks to Merriam-Webster.

9. The definition of shame
 1 a : a painful emotion caused by consciousness of
guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety
 b : the susceptibility to such emotion <have you no
shame?>
 2 : a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute :
ignominy <the shame of being arrested>
 3 a : something that brings censure or reproach;
also : something to be regretted
 b : a cause of feeling shame

10. Is this not a case of Mistaken Shame?
 Mistaken Shame, coined by Nietzsche, is linked to the
political act of shaming.
 It happens to us when people with more privilege or
power attribute shame to us, for not having achieved
socially-expected success, for being a ‘failure or loser’,
which makes us feel worthless and guilty, personally
responsible.
Jenkins, A. (2009) Becoming Ethical. Lyme Regis, Dorset:
Russel House Publishing

11. Support for mothers
 We would do better to invest research and funds into
supporting mothers rather than finding fault with
them.
 You are doing a great job!
 Thank you
 www.aspedah.ch
 www.lindley.ch