By AVRIL Mathilde & SAUZE Julie
Gérard Neyrand is a French sociologist who teaches at “Paul Sabatier” University in Toulouse. In 2003, he wrote an article entitled “The evolution of the perspective on parental relations: the example of France”. He attempted to explain how, over time, the so-called “traditional” family representations have changed. According to Neyrand (2003), these changes can be explained mainly by the evolution of mores in French society (family, conjugal and parental), but also by the emergence of theories and knowledge about the behaviors, functions and roles of parents within the family.
In the past, the most common family model in our society was the so-called “traditional” family, in other words, a woman and a man united by the sacred links of marriage and who would found a family through the birth of a child. A family system in which everyone has a well-defined and specific place. At that time, psychoanalytic theories tend to show that the father occupies an instrumental and authoritative function, while the mother is in charge of the management of the domestic tasks but especially of the good development of children, and specifically the affective and emotional pole (Lacan, 1938; Parsons 1955).
Indeed, during the post-war period, many studies in developmental psychology focused on highlighting the importance of the mother in the development of the child. Thus, Spitz (1945) and Bowlby (1951) have developed the notion of hospitalism, which stipulates that the absence or separation between the mother and her child can lead to serious shortcomings up to the death of an infant, in the medium and long term. Bowlby (1951) evokes intellectual, relational or emotional problems during long separations between the child and his mother. These intakes show that during this period, the newborn is absolutely dependent on his environment and more specifically on his mother (Winnicott, 1971, 1975). He needs care, attention and love in order not to develop this syndrome of hospitalism. Thus, in the past, the presence of the mother was considered to be essential for the good development of the child, unlike the father who maintains more a bond of authority towards this one.
However, from the 1970s onwards, many societal and family changes implied a redefinition of the roles, functions, duties and rights of each member of a family. In particular by the creation of the law attesting that the father and the mother have the same parental authority, or by the law allowing the woman to work. But also by the possibility of divorce (involving a shared custody) but also by new means of procreation (existence de mères porteuses par exemple), or the arrival of contraception. These evolution give rise to new terms: parenthood, multi-parenthood, paternity, maternity, parental / conjugal couples, stepfamilies, single-parent families and others. These new family situations are the result of many societal developments. However, for Neyrand (2003), parenthood can be defined according to three registers: the alliance of parents, affiliation and socialization.
These developments have also allowed us to rethink of the role, functions, rights and duties of parents within their families, but also to rethink the place of the child in complex family system. Hence, there are three different family models based on how to educate children (lax, moderate, authoritarian) and their empowerment in the family environment. The model that is most benefical for the child is the « democratic » model.
These upheavals in family, marital and parental systems also question the place, role and function of the father within the family system. Studies on the father were largely reduced in comparison with those performed on the mother. But since 1980, knowledge and theories emerge, allowing to better understand the link between the father and the family system. For Delaisie de Parseval (1981), man and woman have an egalitarian psychic functioning in procreation. For example the women grows up with the presence of the baby, has nausea, fatigue so much that the man can have the same symptoms that emerge from this imagination. This is called « couvade ». It’s a process of paternalisation allowing the father to « think of » the child and to prepare himself psychically for all events will relating to the birth of child.
Today, the future parents « think the child before doing it », which prevents the father from suffering the pregnancy of his spouse (who has control over procreation). Thus, the father takes up a place of interest and is also upgraded to women, children or caregivers. However, in spit of these many changes concerning the father in this family system, he always responds to his role of authority and transmission to his children.
In addition, the repositioning of parent figures, current reproductive systems and new knowledge about the child involve real ethical questions about parenthood. Indeed, this implies uncertainty with regard to the old traditional theories, which are elaborated on the basis of the immuability of parenthood. For example, in medically assisted proceation, raises the question of filiation with biological parents from biological truth and symbolic parents from the will.
Finally, the family has moved from a traditional « patricentre system » to a « detraditionalised », fragilized, individualized and chil-centered family system. Moreover, in the face of medical progress, the child is no longer considered as a small adult but as a « child-subject » who deserves specific treatment (care, love, attention) in order to optimize his good development and is revalorized in our society. From the parental point on view, parentage and the concept of parenthood are revolutionized. The mother loses her omnipotence in the development of the child, which makes it possible to consider the father in a different way and thus adopt relations of equality between mother and father.
Faced with these societal, family and parental evolutions, it is necessary that things be well defined in order to avoid causing psychological or social difficulties for parents but also for children. Today, in the face of the registers of parenthood (alliance, filiation and socialization), it is necessary to differentiate each family context, that is : kinship (symbolic) and parentage (everyday life) which are sometimes poorly differentiated in families.
Bibliographic reference :
Neyrand, G. (2003). L’évolution du regard sur la relation parentale : l’exemple de la France. Nouvelles pratiques sociales, 16(1), 27-44. DOI : 10.7202/009625ar
