Shattered Containment: Child Abuse and the Collapse of the Maternal Function in Times of Crisis

Introduction: The Maternal Function in Crisis

In the psychoanalytic tradition, the maternal function is not simply the biological role of mothering, but a psychic container—a symbolic and emotional holding environment that allows the infant, and later the child or adolescent, to make sense of internal chaos (Winnicott, 1965; Bion, 1962). When this function breaks down—especially during social upheaval, war, or forced migration—the psychic consequences are profound. Adolescents, caught between dependency and emerging identity, are particularly vulnerable. In such contexts, child abuse often becomes both symptom and consequence of the failure of symbolic containment.

This essay examines how the collapse of the maternal function during war, migration, and sociopolitical breakdownleads to psychic disintegration and real-world harm in adolescents, and how the analytic function—when available—acts as a symbolic holding space. We explore this through cross-cultural comparison, examining different expressions of this breakdown in Syria, Ukraine, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa, considering both intra-psychic and social-symbolic dimensions.

The Maternal Function and the Need for Containment

Donald Winnicott (1960) described the maternal function as the capacity to provide a “holding environment”—a psychological space in which the child can gradually develop a stable sense of self. Wilfred Bion (1962) further developed this through the concept of container/contained, in which the mother metabolizes the child’s unprocessed emotional states, allowing them to become thinkable and speakable.

In times of crisis, however, this maternal function becomes fragile or unavailable. Mothers themselves may be traumatized, emotionally absent, or forced into survival roles. In such contexts, adolescents—who are already negotiating autonomy and sexual identity—are exposed to psychic fragmentation, which may manifest as violence, withdrawal, dissociation, or sexual exploitation.

1. Syria and the Breakdown of Basic Trust

In post-civil war Syria, many adolescents have grown up in bombed-out homes, refugee camps, or detention facilities. Here, the maternal function is often replaced by absence, fear, or depersonalized authority figures. The impact on adolescents includes:

• Increased exposure to sexual abuse in camps with no privacy or surveillance.

• Emotional detachment from caregivers who are themselves traumatized.

• Internalization of violence as normal, leading to aggression or self-harm.

In psychoanalytic terms, this reflects a failure of symbolic mediation. Without maternal containment, adolescents fall back into pre-symbolic modes of expression—acting out rather than speaking. The analytic function, when available (e.g., in therapeutic NGOs), can offer a substitute containing environment, where trauma is given words and time.

2. Ukraine: Fathers at War, Mothers in Survival Mode

In Ukraine, the current war has led to mass male conscription, leaving many mothers to raise adolescents alone under conditions of terror. The maternal function collapses under stress when the mother becomes overwhelmed by fear and practical demands, resulting in:

• Hyper-control or dissociation, leading to emotional unavailability.

• Increased vulnerability to trafficking and online exploitation.

• Somatization and psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents.

Here, the adolescent may experience the mother not as a containing figure but as a fragmented or persecutory object, echoing the psychotic-level anxieties described by Melanie Klein (1946). In this context, group therapy and trauma-informed schools offer some repair of the maternal-symbolic field.

3. Latin America: Migration, Gender Violence, and the Gendered Failure of Care

In regions like Venezuela, El Salvador, and Honduras, forced migration is compounded by gender-based violence, gang warfare, and patriarchal breakdown. Adolescents fleeing with their mothers often witness:

• Maternal despair, depression, or dependency on abusive partners for survival.

• Sexual abuse by smugglers, border guards, or even within the family.

• Silencing of trauma due to shame, religious beliefs, or economic survival.

The maternal function collapses not only due to external pressure but also due to internalized patriarchal scripts where women’s suffering must be hidden or endured. Adolescents, particularly girls, often report feeling “unreal” or “disappeared.” Their symptoms speak what the family and culture cannot.

Psychoanalysis here must act not just as therapy but as social witnessing (Laub, 1995), providing a space for re-symbolization and naming the unspeakable.

4. Sub-Saharan Africa: Child Soldiers, Maternal Loss, and the Body as Battlefield

In countries like South Sudan, the DRC, and northern Nigeria, adolescents are frequently conscripted as child soldiersor used in domestic and sexual slavery. When maternal figures are killed or displaced, the child may experience:

• Extreme psychic fragmentation, akin to what Ferenczi (1932) called “Orpha”—the loss of all protective structure.

• Repetition of abuse as identification with the aggressor.

• Body-based symptomatology, including mutism, seizures, or self-mutilation.

In these contexts, the analytic function must be radically adapted—community rituals, storytelling, and symbolic play may be more accessible than traditional talking cures.

Analytic Containment in Social Chaos

In each context, the analytic function—whether delivered through formal therapy, school systems, or informal cultural rituals—acts as a surrogate maternal function, attempting to metabolize the unthinkable. This includes:

• Providing symbolic language where silence dominates.

• Framing trauma within historical and collective meaning, avoiding pathologization.

• Allowing mourning where grief has been foreclosed.

The analyst’s role becomes not merely individual but deeply political, echoing Judith Butler’s insight that vulnerability is both personal and structural (Butler, 2004).

Comparative Observations

Conclusion: Rebuilding the Maternal-Symbolic

Child abuse in the context of war and migration reflects not just individual pathology, but the collapse of the maternal-symbolic order. Adolescents, no longer buffered by containment, express trauma through the body, through dissociation, through acting out.

The task of psychoanalysis in these settings is not just healing, but holding. Re-establishing the possibility of containment—through listening, naming, mourning, and witnessing—is itself an act of reparation.

As Winnicott said, “There is no such thing as a baby—there is only a baby and someone.”
In crisis, that “someone” may be gone. The analytic function must step into the void—not to replace the mother, but to help rebuild the frame where a child can become a subject again.

References

• Winnicott, D.W. (1965). The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment

• Bion, W.R. (1962). Learning from Experience

• Klein, M. (1946). Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms

• Ferenczi, S. (1932). Confusion of Tongues Between the Adults and the Child

• Laub, D. (1995). “Truth and Testimony.” In Testimony: Crises of Witnessing

• Butler, J. (2004). Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence

• UNHCR, Save the Children, and UNICEF reports on adolescent trauma and displacement (2023–2025)