All that remains to the mother in modern consumer society is the role of scapegoat; psychoanalysis uses huge amounts of money and time to persuade analysis and to foist their problems on to the absent mother, who has no opportunity to utter a word in her own defense. Hostility to the mother in our societies is an index of mental health.

Summary

This quote suggests that in current consumer-driven societies, the role of a mother has been reduced to that of a scapegoat. Psychoanalysis, the quote implies, often spends significant resources to convincingly blame the absent mother for their patients' problems, while she is unable to speak up in her defense. The quote also argues that there is a correlation between being hostile towards mothers in a society and the mental well-being of that society.

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