Working with Pre- and Perinatal Material in Psychotherapy

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