The Capacity to Care

Gender and Ethical Subjectivity

Wendy Hollway author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:5th Oct '06

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

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The Capacity to Care cover

Wendy Hollway explores a subject that is largely absent from the topical literature on care. Humans are not born with a capacity to care, and this volume explores how this capacity is achieved through the experiences of primary care, gender development and later, parenting.

In this book, the author addresses the assumption that the capacity to care is innate. She argues that key processes in the early development of babies and young children create the capability for individuals to care, with a focus on the role of intersubjective experience and parent-child relations. The Capacity to Care also explores the controversial belief that women are better at caring than men and questions whether this is likely to change with contemporary shifts in parenting and gender relations. Similarly, the sensitive domain of the quality of care and how to consider whether care has broken down are also debated, alongside a consideration of what constitutes a ‘good enough’ family.

The Capacity to Care provides a unique theorization of the nature of selfhood, drawing on developmental and object relations psychoanalysis, as well as philosophical and feminist literatures. It will be of relevance to social scientists studying gender development, gender relations and the family as well as those interested in the ethics of care debate.

'This book is significant for its scholarly exploration of psychological aspects of caring and compassion, marking an important development in the field.'- Dr Ann Weatherall, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

'Building on her ground-breaking earlier work on gender, subjectivity and method, Wendy Hollway's new book makes an exciting intervention in recent debates about care. It is a wonderful example of how psychoanalytic perspectives can transform social scientific, feminist and public understandings.' – Sasha Roseneil, University of Leeds, UK

'Wendy Hollway, one of the foremost psycho-social thinkers of our time, weaves psychic and social reality together in a fascinating account of the development and vicissitudes of the capacity to care.'- Lynne Layton, Harvard Medical School, USA

'The Capacity to Care provides a thought-provoking and complex analysis of a subject both long neglected and oversimplified. Hollway creates an urgency to take this topic seriously.' - Leanne R. Parker, PsycCRITIQUES


This book is significant for its scholarly exploration of psychological aspects of caring and compassion, marking an important development in the field. - Dr Ann Weatherall, Senior Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington

Building on her ground-breaking earlier work on gender, subjectivity and method, Wendy Hollway’s new book makes an exciting intervention in recent debates about care. It is a wonderful example of how psychoanalytic perspectives can transform social scientific, feminist and public understandings. – Sasha Roseneil, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, University of Leeds

Wendy Hollway, one of the foremost psycho-social thinkers of our time, weaves psychic and social reality together in a fascinating account of the development and vicissitudes of the capacity to care. - Lynne Layton, Faculty, Harvard Medical School

ISBN: 9780415399685

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 300g

162 pages