Mother as Village: A Hermeneutic Investigation of the Normalization of Maternal Burnout

Abstract

In contemporary American society the experience of becoming a mother, mothering children, and navigating the experience and institution of motherhood has a significant impact on women, often resulting in the deterioration of maternal mental health and the rise of maternal burnout. The aim of this study was to examine maternal burnout within the context of socio-cultural-historical expectations of mothers in post-WWII contemporary American society. This study was rooted in a qualitative, human science hermeneutic orientation, and employed a social constructivist approach. It analyzed maternal burnout as a cultural artifact within the larger cultural matrix and interpreted it through the lens of feminist epistemology. Productions and reproductions of motherhood both within psychological (scholarly and popular) and public (literature, film, and television) discourses were considered. Four significant themes of sense-making emerged, categorized as distinct socially constructed versions of the mother: the idealized angel, the demonized witch, the infantilized baby, and the dissenting speaker. The findings of this examination reveal complex and multilayered ideologies in a constant state of flux that reflect and reproduce the cultural matrix. Understanding the complexity of maternal burnout as a cultural artifact attests to the dissonance experienced by mothers as they perform the contradictory roles of motherhood, highlights the significance of socio-historical-political factors that impact maternal burnout, and provides clinicians with a richer cultural competence as they seek to support the maternal population.