The Good Enough Mother with Professor Alessandra Lemma

Here is episode 1 of Series 11 of my podcast: Conversations with Annalisa Barbieri. I’ve long been fascinated with the idea of good enough, not only in mothering but, actually, for so many things. We tend to live in a world of extremes now: things are amazing or awful. Yet most of us live in the ordinary, the ‘enough’. In this episode chartered clinical and counselling psychologist, psychoanalyst and a fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society Professor Alessandra Lemma and I discuss what it is to be a good enough mother, a phrase coined by the the paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott in the 1950s. We talk about what might matter and what really doesn’t, and it might not be what you think. Perhaps it will trigger your own memories of childhood and you can ponder on what really did matter. If you'd like to listen to this episode, past or future ones, ad free then consider becoming a Substacker: . From £5 a month or £50 (current rates) a year you'll get access to all new podcasts as soon as they are available and before general release and ad-free. You can also support us by sharing this podcast far and wide, it's available wherever you listen to your podcasts. And leaving a review if you can. Thank you so much. Produced by Hester Cant. Art work by Lo Cole. Music by Toby Dunham. Support this show . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to The Good Enough Mother with Professor Alessandra Lemma online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Good Enough Mother with Professor Alessandra Lemma is an episode from Conversations with Annalisa Barbieri by Annalisa Barbieri.

This episode is 38:42 long.

This episode was published on Jan 8, 2026.

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