The psychoanalytic theory of fertility

The motives of reproduction in women--the reasons why they want to have children--are experienced on three different levels: (1) as an elementary and universal human event which, however, event on casual observation betrays its recondite and complex motivation. For the psychotherapist and social scientist it becomes soon (2) a complex question in which covert psychological and sociogenic motives interact. In our time, moreover, reproduction has become (3) an enormous, and ominous social problem. Freud's theory of the motives of reproduction can be viewed as a basic sequence and can be conceived as a linear process. The changes this theory has undergone are defined by the separation of reproductive and sexual motives, and are discussed in some detail.