Navigating the Cathexis: Mothers and Daughters and End of Life
This dissertation begins with women's lives and examines the experience of mothering (and daughtering) across the full continuum of women's lives, including the end of their lives. Specifically, my work focuses on the cathexis, the specific flow of energy that moves between mothers and daughters as they navigate the meaning, significance and context of their connection as a mother is at the end of her life. Strongly informed by a feminist epistemology, this study draws on multiple conversations with five mothers and adult daughter s (10 participants including one-in law pairing) as a mother is receiving in-patient or home based end of life care. Drawing on a narrative methodology and utilizing joint/dyadic interviews as my method, mothers and daughters were asked to share relational stories over time: when the daughter was young; when the daughter was a young-adult/adult; when illness arrived; in the present and what they hoped for one another in the future. Applying a narrative thematic and dialogic/performance analytic approach, end of life relational stories were examined to further our understanding of how and why mothers and daughters experiences of end of life are experienced and performed in particular ways. Findings across the two analytic approaches reflect interwoven processes between mothers and daughters which are individual, relational and intersubjective. Individual processes address individual knowing and individual choices; relational processes reflect relational care practices between mothers and daughters, and mothers and daughters and care providers; and intersubjective processes address mutual knowing of dying and death. Implications of this study for social work practice and education strongly encourage social work practice to expand to dyadic interviews and interventions in end of life, with an emphasis on what we can learn if we listen carefully to what, how and why people say things in particular ways. Implications for research encourage further questioning about how end of life is relational, and strongly urges researchers to explore joint/dyadic interviews as a method to explore living and dying in relationship.
End of Life, Hospice, Palliative Care, Joint/Dyadic interviews, Mothers and daughters, Narrative analysis
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