The Inner World of Parents. Gertrude Dim-Ville

The book “The Inner World of Parents. Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Parenting” by the famous German psychoanalyst Gertrude Dim-Ville is devoted to an in-depth analysis of fatherhood and motherhood through the prism of psychoanalytic theory. The author explores not only the behavioral or social aspects of upbringing, but primarily the inner world of parents — their unconscious fantasies, conflicts, traumas, and transferences that shape the parenting style and relationship with the child.

Dim-Ville shows how one’s own childhood experiences, relationships with parents, and unfulfilled desires and fears influence the perception of the role of mother or father. She pays particular attention to how old psychic structures are activated in the process of parenting and how the unconscious past can enter into a dialogue with the present life of the family.

The book "The Inner World of Parents" will be especially useful for psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, as well as for anyone interested in how the inner world of adults affects child development and the dynamics of family relationships. This is a profound work that helps to see parenthood not only as a social function, but as a complex mental process where love, unconscious impulses, and the experience of previous generations are intertwined.