Neonates have no psychology. If operated upon, for instance, they are
not supposed to show signs of trauma later on in life. Birth, according
to this school of thought is of no psychological consequence to the
newborn baby. It is immeasurably more important to his "primary
caregiver" (mother) and to her supporters (read: father and other
members of the family). It is through them that the baby is,
supposedly, effected. This effect is evident in his (I will use the
male form only for convenience's sake) ability to bond. The late Karl
Sagan professed to possess the diametrically opposed view when he
compared the process of death to that of being born. He was commenting
upon the numerous testimonies of people brought back to life following
their confirmed, clinical death. Most of them shared an experience of
traversing a dark tunnel. A combination of soft light and soothing
voices and the figures of their deceased nearest and dearest awaited
them at the end of this tunnel. All those who experienced it described
the light as the manifestation of an omnipotent, benevolent being. The
tunnel - suggested Sagan - is a rendition of the mother's tract. The
process of birth involves gradual exposure to light and to the figures
of humans. Clinical death experiences only recreate birth experiences.
The womb is a self-contained though open (not self-sufficient)
ecosystem. The Baby's Planet is spatially confined, almost devoid of
light and homeostatic. The fetus breathes liquid oxygen, rather than
the gaseous variant. He is subjected to an unending barrage of noises,
most of them rhythmical. Otherwise, there are very few stimuli to
elicit any of his fixed action responses. There, dependent and
protected, his world lacks the most evident features of ours. There are
no dimensions where there is no light. There is no "inside" and
"outside", "self" and "others", "extension" and "main body", "here" and
"there". Our Planet is exactly converse. There could be no greater
disparity. In this sense - and it is not a restricted sense at all -
the baby is an alien. He has to train himself and to learn to become
human. Kittens, whose eyes were tied immediately after birth - could
not "see" straight lines and kept tumbling over tightly strung cords.
Even sense data involve some modicum and modes of conceptualization
(see: "Appendix 5 - The Manifold of Sense").
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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