[The task of becoming a parent: problems and failures]

The reactions of father and/or mother at the time of the birth of the first son are here analysed (post partum "blue", "couvade", paternal acting and neurotic depressions). These manifestations are considered as masked depressive states. Analogies between the freudian concept of the mourning work and the work of becoming parents are seen as an internal process for both parents to consider all their losses (the role of the son, the privileged role of the pregnant woman, the exclusive relationship with the partner . . .). Two aspects are emphasised which correspond to different levels of involvement and to different clinical manifestations. An incapacity to establish a dual relationship is expressed in both father and mother with psychosis as an escape from the work of parenthood; problems and failures in such work are expressed as depressive manifestations which testify the obstacles to this elaboration.