De l’épreuve de deuil au désir d’enfant : quand le symptôme d’infertilité secondaire fait sens

Objective

Based on a clinical situation taken from doctoral research, the author wishes to show how the unconscious psychic issues re-actualized by migration and bereavement can hinder the occurrence of a subsequent pregnancy. The choice of this clinical vignette is explained by its paradigmatic dimension, the richness, and the quality of clinical elements.

Method

This clinical situation is based on a qualitative methodology of descriptive case analysis which integrates the “grounded theory”.

Results

The analysis underlines, on the intrapsychic level, issues of the order of unelaborated traumas (unplanned mourning) and a negativity of the relationship to the maternal figure which hinder the desire for a child. Psychotherapeutic care would seem to be necessary in order to offer the opportunity for development in the event that the pregnancy did not take place, to initiate a process of grieving over the numerous losses (migration, father, fetuses, reproductive function), and to work on the relationship to the mother figure.