good enough mother definition | Psychology Dictionary

good enough mother

in the object relations theory of British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott (1896–1971), the ordinary, devoted mother who provides an adequate or good enough environment for the growth of the infant’s ego to express its true self. The good enough mother begins mothering by adapting entirely to the infant and providing an environment free of impingements, but later she gradually and inadvertently creates small failures of adaptation that allow the infant to tolerate the frustrations of reality.

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good enough mother

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