Another aspect that suggests why Bechdel is choosing to undergo the task of writing about her mother is a set of five photos from when she was younger. She studies a set of five photos taken in January when she was only three months old (104-105) and although she does not know the true order of the photos, she arranges them as to how she feels they progressed. In the first four photos Bechdel is making faces and noises with her mother but in the last picture, her face is wary, looking toward and camera and the man behind it; even “at three months, [she] had seen enough of [her] father’s rages to be wary of him” (Frame 9, 105). Her relationship with her father from the beginning was not optimal and after his death Bechdel struggles with her
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Insight to Bechdel’s obsession with her mother begins with Virginia Woolf’s letter to her sister, where she discusses her brother, Adrian, who underwent psychotherapy. Woolf claims that her brothers “tragedy” (Frame 3, 96) comes from the fact that “he was suppressed as a child” (Frame 3, 96). Emotional suppression of a young child causes distress and a loss of innocence resulting in an adult who cannot fully understand and express their own emotions; “it is the emotional climate created by the mother which enables the child’s mind to develop normally. Where this emotional climate is lacking, the baby’s mind cannot develop properly. If it grows up it may become mentally impaired, asocial, criminal, or insane.” (Spitz & Wolf qt. in van Rosleman, Lenny, et al.) With the help of Donald Winnicot’s writing The Ordinary Devoted Mother, Bechdel realizes she was subjected to emotional suppression as a child and that her obsession stems from the emotional suppression. When Bechdel was only three months old, her mother was pregnant with another child; according to Winnicot, a “new pregnancy before the time that [a women] had thought out as appropriate” (Frame 2, 106) is one of the three major reasons a mother fails to care for her child emotionally. Bechdel did not receive the emotionally support that she
Insight to Bechdel’s obsession with her mother begins with Virginia Woolf’s letter to her sister, where she discusses her brother, Adrian, who underwent psychotherapy. Woolf claims that her brothers “tragedy” (Frame 3, 96) comes from the fact that “he was suppressed as a child” (Frame 3, 96). Emotional suppression of a young child causes distress and a loss of innocence resulting in an adult who cannot fully understand and express their own emotions; “it is the emotional climate created by the mother which enables the child’s mind to develop normally. Where this emotional climate is lacking, the baby’s mind cannot develop properly. If it grows up it may become mentally impaired, asocial, criminal, or insane.” (Spitz & Wolf qt. in van Rosleman, Lenny, et al.) With the help of Donald Winnicot’s writing The Ordinary Devoted Mother, Bechdel realizes she was subjected to emotional suppression as a child and that her obsession stems from the emotional suppression. When Bechdel was only three months old, her mother was pregnant with another child; according to Winnicot, a “new pregnancy before the time that [a women] had thought out as appropriate” (Frame 2, 106) is one of the three major reasons a mother fails to care for her child emotionally. Bechdel did not receive the emotionally support that she