Journal Abstracts
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Research into maternal-fetal attachment is increasing yet has not yielded substantive scientific results due in part to the lack of a clear definition of the word “attachment.” Furthermore, a controversy currently exists in the literature with debate focused on the use of the word “attachment” as referenced by John Bowlby when discussing the maternal-fetal relationship.
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This paper discusses somatically informed parent-prenate counseling/ psychotherapy. It defines and presents the phenomenon called parent-prenate attachment. Further, it reviews the literature on parent-prenate attachment; and also reports on some of the factors that have been found to strengthen, or weaken, the qualities of bonding in this relationship. Finally, the article defines and introduces somatic psychotherapy; and proposes some of the potential ways in which somatic clinical interventions could enhance the practice of parent-prenate psychotherapy.
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Recent research across various disciplines, including attachment theory, neuroscience, developmental psychology, and pre and perinatal psychology, suggests the importance of redefining parenting effectiveness to include empathic attunement. In light of this research, the importance of prenatal education and training for mothers in body-centered contemplative practices, due to the resulting potential for the development of empathic attunement and the corresponding impact on the developing mind/brain of their children, is discussed.
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Pregnancy as a feminine initiation becomes conscious to a woman when she engages with her pregnant imagination through dreams, art, emotions, and somatic changes. If the woman acknowledges her emotional and psychological reactions arising from core archetypal patterns, a “conscious pregnancy” occurs. Three stages of the initiation are outlined: Gateway, Attending, and Passage. Focusing on the Attending stage, three key psychological components are explored: shadow, syzygy, and simultaneity. Viewing the prenatal psyche through C.G.
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In order to validate external perceptions there are clear criteria in the natural sciences as to what is known and what is not known. In psychology we are dealing with internal perceptions, where the boundary between knowledge and non-knowledge cannot be so clearly defined due to the subjectivity of the observer. However, during the past hundred years, a culture of validation of internal perceptions has been developed in psychoanalysis and other psychotherapies by means of controlled self experience and supervision.
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Some psychoanalytic researches are reviewed here to give an overview of how ideas on prenatal life and psychoanalytic ideas on ego-formation got tentatively together during the last century and the first years of the new century. There is a large bow to Ferenczi who published his long paper Thalassa in 1924 after about ten years of thoughts on it that were shared by Maiello, Hidas and Raffai, and Wilheim. Certainly this bow is incomplete. However, we can see how prenatal life becomes more relevant in psychoanalytic research, too.
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Birthing professionals are charged with the responsibility of freeing the baby whose head appears but whose shoulders remain stuck. How they manage this stressful obstacle and how the experience imprints the baby both physiologically and psychologically are examined in this paper through the application of body-centered therapy.
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In this issue of JOPPPAH we connect strongly with one of the primary ancestors of our field, psychoanalysis, and find there relevance and wisdom that informs and challenges us to consider all perspectives in what constitutes pre- and perinatal psychology today. We find that psychoanalysis is not only an ancestor, but a current explorer in this realm.
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The Sound of Silence: Journeys Through Miscarriage, edited by Irma Gold. (2011). Capalaba, Queensland: Mostly for Mothers, a division of Wombat Books, 165 pages, ISBN 978-921632-12-9.
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This paper will explore the effects on the unborn and newborn child of psychological stress, depression, and other relevant maternal factors in the pre and perinatal period. Particular attention will be paid to the effects of stress on the organization and function of the fetal brain, on neurohormones, the immune system, personality evolution, as well as on the development of many childhood and adult diseases.
