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This section has been drawn from the reports of a number of individuals having relived their birth during the course of a structural therapy, and during archaic therapy sessions in other contexts. The number of cases we have been able to study in some detail is at present around hundred. This data has been confronted with already published material, in good agreement with most of the raw facts we have found, and some variations especially in the interpretation of the events. It is worth citing the pioneering works of Leonard Orr and Sondra Ray[1], Phil Laut[2], Stanislav Grof[3], Jacques de Panafieu[4].
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vitalisation ↓ |
onset of uterine contractions |
the beginning of the uterine contractions is a signal for the child and initiates a transformation program the contractions seem to be triggered by a factor released by the child when it is ready (a chemical or a psychic messenger) |
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onset of vitality in the body of the child |
the onset of the program transforms a passive foetus into an active child by putting in the body an autonomous pressure for activation and mobilisation due to confinement, a drive to set free of the prison of the uterus sets on (a sort of frenzy or rage) and produces a number of reflex movements directed towards expelling self out of the womb |
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reflex of finding the tractus |
the child rotates to find the appropriate position for pushing; the top of the head is very sensitive and determines position of the canal before the final push |
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pushing with legs and arching the column |
the child makes strong pushes with its legs on the wall of the womb and at the right time there is an arching reflex of the back accompanied by stretching the legs firmly |
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expulsion ↓ |
self propelling in the tractus |
once engaged, the propulsion is rather easy and seems wonderfully pleasant |
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breathing ↓ |
autonomous breathing |
breathing sets in when conditions of freeing the trachoea are met |
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cutting the umbilical chord |
cutting the umbilical chord before the onset of natural breathing and the subside of its pulsation produces panic of imminent death by asphyxiation |
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bonding ↓ |
hooking to the breast |
when the baby has quieted from its performance of getting out and has been in contact with the warm skin of his mother and her heartbeat, the first reflex to set in is to turn (or even crawl) towards the breast and suck the bonding stimuli are not known with certainty, but the heartbeat, the hugging, the warmth and tenderness of the skin, and the voice of the mother are often cited (in this order) |
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transformation of the mother's state |
the feelings and deeply emotional reflexes of her body transforms her ordinary state into a mother state with special drives adapted to the sole service of her child for a definite time, the symbiosis time |
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symbiosis |
initialisation of a new symbiotic relationship between mother and child |
the symbiosis of the pregnant state is extended by the symbiosis of the first months, total, then partial, until weaning sets on |
It has to be stressed that all these events are carefully recorded in body form in our psyche. They are relived again and again throughout our lifetime, and especially during infancy, at adolescence, around mid-life, when nearing death, and at every occasion of intense stress. When relived in therapy, they are able to release a considerable amount of repressed energy and give information on the associated events.
It is very important to understand the transition between the foetal state and the child state (the would-be neonate).
The foetus is fundamentally passive. It is biologically living and has sensory-motor activity, but his body is not fed by purpose oriented activity. This is fortunate since otherwise, it could not bear the confinement without becoming mad. Automatic reflexes and stereotypies are natural parts of this non-vitalised life and has to be distinguished from actions and reactions of the vitalised life.
The child on the contrary is fundamentally active, i.e. the body is constantly fed by energy (except during sleep), that is inhabited by tensions and the urge to release those tensions by a form of mobilisation. This automatic permanent feeding of the body by tensions seeking release produces a permanent active search for means (object, context, target) of satisfying the associate needs (the temporary relief of those tensions).
This is what constitutes "life" in the psychic sense and that we name in structural psychology vitality. Other words have been used to designate this fundamental property of all living creatures: life force, life impulse, breath, yuch (psyche), soul or spirit (the energetic part), life mystery, and in the psychoanalytic realm, Trieb and Instinct (in German), psychic energy, drive (in English), pulsion (in French), pulsão (in Portuguese), libido (for its sexual part, specie preservation oriented).
We distinguish the psychic life which is inherent to the living beings and pushes in them at all times to move and encounter their surroundings, from biological life which is the automatic sustaining of biological functions independently of any psychological drive. Those two planes are distinct.[5] Biological life does not automatically produces psychic life, as is plainly demonstrated by autistic individuals.
From this distinction, we also observe that the ordinary state of all living being is a degree of activation, a state of constant mobilisation, and not a static state. Mobilisation produces encounter with the environment, brings sensations and reactions from sensations otherwise absent, produces the constant seeking of something to satisfy surface or depth needs. The so-called "homeostatic state", a state of tension-free rest, as a natural goal of living beings is a hypothesis often cited in textbooks which had been drawn from physics and has not been confirmed.[6]
This automatic mobilisation of the body may become interior (covert) during child and adult life, since the body can be willingly inhibited and the energy redirected to the mental processes which appear then as an extension of the unmanifest body life.
Psychic life, or vitality, is not set on or withdrawn in four cases:
Once the child is out of the tractus, the reflex of breathing starts natural air respiration. If the trachoea is blocked, this reflex does not set in and an automatic clearing of the trachoea takes place before the reflex starts. Once breathing has started, the umbilical chord pulsation, meaning oxygen supply, slowly subsides and it can be cut only when it pulses no more. Before that time, the chord is still feeding the neonate and cutting it will asphyxiate the child with dramatic immediate or late consequences.
The fundamental preconceived idea used in occidental medicine (not explicit: medical paradigm) is that of the passivity of the child. Psychotherapy of the archaic life do not confirm this hypothetical idea.
The child is totally active during labour and expulsion.
The activation of the body and capacity to self-extract comes precisely from the onset of the vitality during labour. There is a synergy between the mother's efforts to be delivered and the efforts of the child. The child'decides' when it is time for slipping out, releases a factor (a chemical or a psychic signal or both, we do not know) to set the contractions on, transforms himself into a vitalised child by initiating a frenzy in his body, finds the opening of the birth canal, pushes against the walls of the womb and expels himself.
Pretending the child is passive is a device authorising the staff to act upon him and the birth process, which is an act of power over the child and over the mother and very often detrimental to both, and is psychologically and ethically a foetus or neonate abuse.
[1] Orr, Leonard, Ray, Sondra, Rebirthing, Celestial Arts, Millbrae, CA, USA, 1977.
[2] Leonard, Jim, Laut, Phil, Rebirthing, the Science of Enjoying all of your Life, Trinity Publications, Hollywood, CA, USA, 1983.
[3] Perinatal experiences (the four perinatal matrices), in Grof, Stanislav, Le royaume de l'inconscient humain, Rocher, Monaco, Monaco, 1983, pp. 117-178.
[4] de Panafieu, Jacques, La rebirth-thérapie, Retz, Paris, F, 1989.
[5] It is a theorem of complexology that a complex domain does not reduce or is analogue to another. Therefore, psychic phenomena does not reduce to biological phenomena. Psyche is not brain. Psychology is not neurology. One has to think that those realms are distinct and obey distinct laws, even in the face that there are bridges between the two systems.
[6] The first and second principles of thermodynamics states that a closed system in equilibrium is at the minimum potential energy point and static. A closed dynamic system is in dynamic equilibrium when it consumes the minimum of energy, i.e. is at the minimum entropy point. These principles do not apply to the living systems which are not closed and where a constant supply of"energy" from the psychic source counteracts the dissipation rate and maintains the dynamic equilibrium.
[7] aggression can be positive aggression (active aggression on the child) or negative aggression (defect of needed care and state of the mother).
[8] see for the chemical deactivation mechanisms: Breggin, Peter R., Brain Damage, Dementia and Persistent Cognitive Dysfunction Associated With Neuroleptic Drugs: Evidence, Aetiology, Implications, The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 11, -34, 1990, 425-464; Toxic Psychiatry, St. Martin's Press, New York, NY, USA, 1994; and also in Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, Springer Publishing Company, New York, NY, USA, 1997, pp. 59.
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