Abortion Trauma: Application of a Conflict Model
Erikson, Robert C.
Vol. 8 (1), 1993, 33-42

This paper proposes that in carrying the decision to undergo elective abortion, a woman experiences a potentially traumatizing psychological event. Vignettes from clinical practice illumine the symptoms and development of post-traumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of abortion. A model of psychic trauma is presented to account for the nature of abortion as a traumatic stressor based on psychoanalytic considerations, with an emphasis on the role of aggressive energy in the reconfiguring of psychic activities following trauma.

Relationship between Induced Abortion and Child Abuse and Neglect: Four Studies
Ney, Philip G., Fung, Tak, & Wickett, Adele Rose
Vol. 8 (1), 1993, 43-64

Four studies designed to investigate any association between induced abortion and child abuse found a number of positive correlations that run counter to popular opinion and some professional declarations that freely available abortion would lower the incidence of child abuse. There is no evidence that the incidence of child abuse has declined more readily with available abortion. Unwanted children were not more often abused, but women who had previous pregnancy losses were more likely to abuse or neglect their children. Data suggest that the anxiety and depression of a subsequent pregnancy and birth interfere with bonding.

Complicated Mourning: Dynamics of Impacted Post Abortion Grief
Speckhard, Anne, & Rue, Vincent
Vol. 8 (1), 1993, 5-32

Current estimates are that 1 in every 5 women in the US will have undergone at least one abortion. Increasingly, long-term stress reactions to abortion have been documented in the research literature. Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS), a variant of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, occurs in women who experience their abortions as traumatic and when the emotional components of the abortion are repressed. Diagnosis and treatment strategies are discussed as well as the societal dynamics that have slowed recognition of this disorder.

Pre- and Perinatal Losses
Findeisen, Barbara R.
Vol. 8 (1), 1993, 65-77

Adoption, abortion, drug abuse, miscarriage, infant or maternal death, mental or physical illness, emotional rejection and even anesthesia have the potential to create life-long feelings of separation and loss. Healing these feelings requires that professionals acknowledge the causal relations between a human's first imprints and later behavior and development. Repression, denial and displacement of pain may manifest at a later time through psychosomatic and psychological symptoms.

Social and Family Pressures on Anxiety and Stress during Pregnancy
Kalil, Kathleen M., Gruber, James E., Conley, Joyce, & Sytniac, Michael
Vol. 8 (2), 1993, 113-118

This prospective study of 433 women focused on the relationships between social support, family and income pressure on anxiety and stress during pregnancy. They completed a medical/psychosocial questionnaire, the Spielberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Jenkins activity Survey, and stress measures formulated using the Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Each participant was assessed once during each trimester of pregnancy. Results found that lack of social support and experience of family and income pressures were related to anxiety and stress during pregnancy, and that women with an emotionally supportive husband or confidante had lower state and trait anxiety. Married women, women with a lower number of stressors, and those whose pregnancy was wanted had lower state and trait anxiety. State and trait anxiety were also related to having lower incomes.

Clinical Psychology in Terms of Ecumenical Medicine
Klimek, Rudolf
Vol. 8 (2), 1993, 119-128

This talk begins by describing the aim of medical education as producing doctors who promote healing in all people, an aim that can only be reached by cooperation between medicine and psychology. One role of psychology is to educate physicians about recent developments in pre- and peri-natal psychology. A truly ecumenical medicine will consider all the factors in the environment of the patient rather than take a narrow view of physical healing.

The Relationship of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology to 20th Century Art, Literature and Philosophy
Janus, Ludwig
Vol. 8 (2), 1993, 129-148

In mythical philosophies of life, primary experience is projected outwards and is experienced as external reality, for instance in the symbols of water and the tree of life. The cultural change that has taken place in the 20th century is determined by the fact that primary experience is increasingly felt to belong to our own life histories and personal development. This is expressed in the concepts of prenatal psychology, but also in the symbolism of modern literature, art and philosophy. Some artists, such as Dali and Beckett, have directly regarded experiences before and during birth as a source of their art.

The Impact of Fetus Visualization on Parents' Psychological Reactions
Kovacevic, Melita
Vol. 8 (2), 1993, 83-94

This study examined the short-term psychological effects on parents of ultrasound scanning (fetal visualization) based on a hypotheses that after visualizing the fetus, parents would experience a lower level of stress and anxiety. Parents (N=296) were divided into a high-feedback group that watched the ultrasound screen and a low-feedback control group that could not see the screen. These were divided into subgroups of risk pregnancy and no-risk pregnancy. Scales administered confirm the positive effect of screening at a level of statistical significance.

Child Neglect: The Precursor to Child Abuse
Ney, Philip G., Fung, Tak, & Wickett, Adele Rose
Vol. 8 (2), 1993, 95-112

Using questionnaire and interview techniques, 167 children and 213 adults were asked for information on their experience of physical abuse, physical neglect, verbal abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse. When neglect preceded abuse in children who experienced both, the negative impact on the child's outlook was magnified. The data indicate neglect has a greater impact than abuse on a child's self-perception and future outlook. Being mistreated as a child and being mistreated by a spouse correlate highly with a parent's tendency to mistreat, particularly with physical and emotional neglect.

Working with Pre- and Perinatal material in Psychotherapy
Verny, Thomas R.
Vol. 8 (3), 1994, 161-186

This paper attempts a historical survey of psychotherapies that have successfully accessed pre- and peri-natal memories. A variety of ways in which psychotherapists work with material that is believed to be linked to pre- or peri-natal life is discussed, and certain desirable criteria for the practice of humanistic and rational pre- and peri-natal psychotherapy are suggested. It is proposed that the systematic study of material that emerges during psychotherapy is facilitated by identifying it with a specific stage of pre- or peri-natal development

How Pre- and Perinatal Psychology Can Transform the World
Chamberlain, David B.
Vol. 8 (3), 1994, 187-200

Probably more people have had the experience of birth in the 20th century than all previous centuries combined. Research and therapy focused on the prenatal and perinatal period confirms that pregnancy and birth are formative experiences for babies and parents. Yet, in this century of maximum birthing, psychological principles and interactions have been radically altered with the result that large-scale experiments--unplanned and unmeasured--have upset human feelings and relationships and may be playing a destructive role in modern society. This paper draws on the latest scientific findings to show how specific changes in parenthood, birthing practices and the way we view ourselves could transform the world.

Mind over Body: The Pregnant Professional
Davis-Floyd, Robbie E.
Vol. 8 (3), 1994, 201-228

This article examines self- and body image as micro mirrors of social relationships and world view based on interviews about pregnancy, birth, childrearing and career with 31 middle-class women. Results showed that they tended to see the body as an imperfect tool that the more perfect self should control and that they tended to experience pregnancy and birth as unpleasant because they felt so out-of-control. They demand pain-relieving drugs during labor and are pleased with obstetrical interventions as long as they feel in control about the decisions. Their conscious choice to dissociate themselves from their biology is reflected in and encouraged by the medical management of birth.

The Effect of Infant Rearing Practices on the Personalities of Children in Egypt
Brink, Judy H.
Vol. 8 (4), 1994, 237-248

In a village in Egypt, two patterns of child and infant rearing were observed. Uneducated mothers living in extended families used a high contact style of infant rearing and child nurses to produce children who were cooperative, family oriented and highly attached to their mothers. Educated women living in nuclear families used a low-contact style of rearing and adult caretakers to produce children who were ego-oriented and able to achieve independently of their families. The author hypothesizes that these styles were adopted in order to produce children whose qualities fulfilled their parents' expectations.

Is Colic a By-product of Exterogestation?
Peters, Elizabeth H.
Vol. 8 (4), 1994, 249-258

Colic is a disorder of early infancy marked by excess amounts of loud, persistent crying. Neither the crying of colicky infants nor the baseline crying of normal infants has any homologue in the vocal behavior of other mammalian infants. This human-specific cry continuum may reflect a human-specific discomfort continuum which is a function of the general immaturity of human neonates. Such immaturity may be the result of selection for altricial birth forced by cephalo-pelvic incompatibility during birth.

Infant Mortality and Cultural Concepts of Infancy: A Case Study from an Early Twentieth Century Aboriginal Community
Moffat, Tina
Vol. 8 (4), 1994, 259-274

This article explores the impact of infant death on cultural perceptions of infancy. It employs a case study of the Cree-Ojibwa community of Fisher River, Manitoba in the early 20th century to illustrate how a high risk of infant death can delay the point at which personhood is conferred on an infant. Further, the concept of infancy among this indigenous community is contrasted with the wider Euro-Canadian values concerning the infant mortality rate.

Infant Signaling: An Environmental Stimulus for Maternal Care
Stallings, Joy F.
Vol. 8 (4), 1994, 275-286

Decades of research have confirmed that infants use specific behavioral signals to elicit maternal responses, as well as the importance of a fit between maternal and infant behavior for optimal psychological and cognitive development of the infant. There is now evidence from animal behavioral studies that neuroendocrine and hormonal mechanisms mediate this link between infant signaling and maternal responsiveness. This paper discusses these findings in the context of Bowlby's evolutionary model of attachment, proposing a biosocial model for studying cross-cultural and intra-cultural variation in maternal care.

Primate Infants as Skilled Information Gatherers
King, Barbara J.
Vol. 8 (4), 1994, 287-307

An evolutionary perspective on human infancy suggests that the active infant, skilled at information-gatherng and -prompting from adults, and at coordinating its behavior with that of adults, has been shaped by natural selection. Infant monkeys and apes are skilled in these ways because they have to be. Ecological shifts over time may have "driven" selection for an information-donating primate adult, an experienced social partner who is motivated to guide infant behavior and coordinate its behavior in structured routines with that of infants.