The maternal principle symbolises an experience common to all living beings. Everyone has had a mother. The mother image is a powerful force that can overwhelm, deny and destroy: and she can also transform, make better and renew. She is a symbol of the unconscious and is closely connected with creativity. She is the name we give to nature and the sea. This lecture explores the maternal principle in myths, fairy tales and in different social models of motherhood, offering a fresh perspective on the problem of the mother image as it impinges on ourselves, our clients, our children and, most crucially, on our society's relationship with the Earth.
Annie Macdonald is a writer and a counsellor/psychotherapist working in private practice and with several Employee Assistance Programmes in London and in Wales. Starting out in developmental psychology and in teaching, she spent eighteen years producing a documentary series charting children growing up for Channel Four Television. She is also a mother and her two children have recently become mothers too.

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