City Research Online

Abstract

There is growing awareness of biases and discrimination; hierarchies that exist within our society that apportion more value to certain subsets, while barring others from the same. Some of these belief systems run deep, and are evident even in literature that aims to do the very opposite of enforcing further oppression. One such subset is that of women. Existing in a chiefly patriarchal society, much of what we, as women, learn about ourselves and how to act, has its roots in inequality that is too often veiled and not readily apparent, lending itself to the internalising of values that are fundamentally incongruent with the narratives we would write for ourselves, given the chance. This doctoral research is focused on women, and in particular, the experiences of daughters who have made use of therapy to explore their relationships with their mothers. The aim of this project was to understand the societal and contextual factors that influence the mother-daughter relationship, and the narrative the daughter constructs to make sense of her experiences. A qualitative approach was employed, and a Critical Narrative Analysis was used to subject the collected data to a moment of suspicion that allowed for a political critique of the text through the lens of intersectionality. Findings are discussed, as well as implications for the practice of Counselling Psychology, and a relatively new concept, that of ‘daughter-guilt’, was discovered through analysing the themes inherent in the data.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences Q Science > Q Science (General)
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology School of Health & Psychological Sciences > School of Health & Psychological Sciences Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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