Parentification-infantilisation: le processus d'individuation de la mère d'Anne

The research on the double bind context helps us understand the individuation process of mothers who are described as parentified and whose child seems to present borderline or psychotic problems. In a previous paper, we presented a study on double bind between those mothers and their child. The aim of this present paper is to develop the transgenerational aspects of those family patterns.
The paper will describe the individuation process of the parentifed mother based on the position she had in her own family, the way she grew up and progressively developed. We will examine her functions towards each of her parents and as well as towards her sibling. We will focus on different elements such as contact style, pat¬terns of interaction in the creation of an « experiencing world » that is so crucial in double bind process. This paper is the last of four. They all tried to expand the area of double bind by clarifyinging the Bateson's metaphor about the double bind as the only visible part of an iceberg. Further than a logical conceptual organization for double bind patterns, the aim of this paper is to provide therapists with a methodological tool they could use as a map which is co-created with the family to progressively reveal the gond reasons for this pathological situation to be and question its pertinence in the family today.