Mother Loss, Exile, and the Imagination of Displacement

Arendsen, B. A. (1998). Mother Loss, Exile, and the Imagination of Displacement (Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 1998).
UMI no. 9913288

This study explores a particular nuance of mother loss from a depth psychological perspective--one in which a young daughter is taken from her mother with her mother's consent, but is not returned as promised. The research focuses on the child's experience of this little-known phenomenon, the many facets of the adult daughter's life which are affected by this early childhood loss, and the adaptation that has to take place.
The study blends personal experience, psychological literature, and examines the ancient myth of Demeter and Persephone in a nonlinear approach that is theoretical in nature and hermeneutic in its application. It is circular in that it begins with connection (the importance of attachment and the primary relationship), moves to separation, loss, exile, and the imagination of displacement, and finally comes back to re-connection.
This investigation is an attempt to create new psychological theory for women that begins with female experience and shows an archetypal element in which daughters seek reconnection to their mothers, particularly when there has been an abrupt separation after a good mother-daughter bonding.
The daughter's experience of being displaced from her mother, her homeland, and her stories, which leads to living in a form of exile, is examined with focus on imaginal processes, conscious and unconscious influences, and ways in which compensation for mother loss is constellated. The adult child makes a long journey home to find her lost mother, homeland, and her true self by way of mythology, dreams, fantasies, Jungian analysis, and a dissertation process. In the process, she is taken into the depths of her own psyche where the healing of the early wounds begin to take place.