Independent Women’s Forum is delighted to announce that Dr. Erica Komisar, psychoanalyst and author of the book “Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters,” is the latest in our popular series of Champion Women profiles.

A Freudian psychoanalyst who lives and works on New York’s Upper West Side, Dr. Komisar is a political liberal who has presented at Aspen Institute. But she became, as she puts it, “a bit of a pariah” in her own liberal, educated Manhattan world when she advocated that mothers find a way to stay at home with children for the first three years of their lives.

"Spending more time with your child during this critical period of development means she will have a greater chance of being emotionally secure and resilient to stress," Komisar wrote, "as well as being better able to regulate her emotions throughout life, read others' social cues, achieve a higher emotional intelligence, and connect with others intimately."

Adding insult to injury, Komisar maintains that daycare is a poor substitute for the presence of a mother. “Mothers are unique biologically to a baby,” Komisar tells IWF. “They are not interchangeable like socks, like you can put your right sock on your left foot, but mothers are not interchangeable with other people.” Daycare, says Komisar, overly-stimulates children, and they do not learn to regulate their emotions. (She does offer some alternatives for mothers who can’t stay home.)

We know you will enjoy meeting this busy psychoanalyst who has the courage of her convictions and learning about how she raised her own children.