CHAPTER 5
Conclusions
A. Critique of the M-FDS as a Scientific Paradigm
1. The Old View
2. Methodology
3. Birth and Pre-natal Memories
- a. Birth and the Fetal Period
- b. First Trimester
- d. The M-FDS as a Paradigm: The Fetal Period
- e. The M-FDS as a Paradigm: The First Trimester
Perhaps the single most controversial aspect of Lake's M-FDS is his strong emphasis
upon the first trimester of intrauterine life. He affirmed that the developmental process, not only in the physiological dimension, but also psychological, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual dimensions, begins not in early infancy or at birth or even in the second or third trimesters of fetal life. Rather, Lake asserted that "we must begin at conception, through the blastocystic stage, to implantation and the events of the first trimester. It is here, in the first three months or so in the womb, that we have encountered the origins of the main personality disorders and the psychosomatic stress conditions."146 In the introduction of Tight Corners in Pastoral Counselling, Lake wrote the following:
We have always known, whether taught by St. Augustine, Søren Kierkegaard or Sigmund Freud, that infants suffered abysmally, and that human beings crawling out of their abysses into life have damaged perceptions, distorted goals and a lifetime bondage of primal fears. What we had not known, and even now are somewhat terrified to know as clearly and rigorously as we in fact do, is the contribution to this soul-destroying pain and heart-breaking suffering that comes from the distress in the womb when the mother herself is distressed. The focus for psychopathology is now, for us, the first trimester of intra-uterine life [emphasis Lake's]. These first three months after conception hold more ups and downs, more ecstasies and devastations
than we had ever imagined.147
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145Lake, "The Internal Consistency of a Theory of a Maternal-Foetal Distress Syndrome," 1.
146Lake, Tight Corners in Pastoral Counselling, ix.
147ibid., vii-viii
252
Lake was certainly aware of the various problems associated with this claim. In a paper addressed to medical colleagues and researchers titled "The Internal Consistency of the Theory of a Maternal-Foetal Distress Syndrome." He sought to address some of the issues inevitably raised by his propositions. The first issue, and the one for which the paper was named, was to address testability of the central hypothesis of the M-FDS, which he defined as "the derepression of aspects of fixated foetal experience, i.e. to foetal distress of various kinds, incurred as a result of the passage to the foetus of maternal distress-- of the same kinds.148 The placental-foetal or umbilical circulation is involved in this, though 'telepathic' communication between mother and foetus is not ruled out."149
Lake saw the M-FDS as empirically testable by defining two independent variables and one dependent variable.150 The first independent variable is the "actual nature of
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148Perhaps an example of this is Lester Sontag's early study titled "War and the Maternal-Fetal Relationship." (Marriage and Family Living, 1944, 6, 1-5). He observed that the babies of women whose husbands were serving in the armed services and thus daily threatened with death tended to be crankier and have an array of physical problems. He theorized that the intra-uterine environment of constantly worrying mothers would have a deleterious effect on a whole generation of infants. Sontag coined the term "somatopsychics" (inferring the mirror process of "psychosomatics", which refers to the way in which psychological processes effect physiological ones) to describe the way "basic physiological processes affect the personality structure, perception, and performance of an individual." Thus, the developing fetal morphological apparatus is influenced by the intra-uterine environment in such a way as to predispose certain psychological processes following birth.
149Lake, "The Internal Consistency of the Theory of a Maternal-Foetal Distress Syndrome," 1.
150In this same paper Lake also proposes a factorial analysis of variance to attempt to determine the extent to which six additional independent variables correlate with each other and the two original independent variables and the extent to which they produce variation in the dependent variable, again defined as the presenting complaints and effects. Lake makes the following predictions regarding the these eight variables and the their relationship with the dependent variable:
1. first trimester distress (high correlation)
2. second or third trimester distress (positive or negative correlation)
for (1) and a positive or negative correlation for (2).
3. difficulty of birth (not of itself negative, but only as following a high correlation for (1) and a positive or negative correlation for (2)
4. post-natal conditions (positive or negative correlation, but low.)
5. pubertal conditions (low correlation)
6. mother's distress level in 1st trimester (very high correlation)
7. mother's distress level after birth (no correlation if distress begins after birth)
8. mother's character now (positive correlation if continuous with (6).
(Lake, "The Internal Consistency of the Theory of a Maternal-Foetal Distress Syndrome," 8).
253
content of the mother's distress,"151 namely, what is transfused into the fetus, and the second is the "nature and content of the foetal response to the distress, as it is being re-lived in deliberate 'therapeutic regression"152 The dependent variable is the actual symptomolgy which the subject is 'complaining of, or 'reporting' together with those 'signs which can be elicited on questioning.'"153
Lake was confident that the data for the two independent variables could be gathered relatively objectively. The data for the first could be gathered by a combination of precise history taking, along with reliable inferential data regarding the mother's personality and stress reactions at the time of the first trimester. The data for the second, Lake believed, was accessible through "pre-natal or primal integration work" of the sort described earlier. These two variables are not independent of each other, since the second, to a great degree, is based on the first.154
Lake's prediction that the dependent variable of present functioning is highly correlated with the independent variable of maternal stress is due to his conceptualization of "patterning"155 or imprints". This notion is central to the M-FDS as a predictive tool relating to aetiology and as a beginning for the therapeutic process. Lake writes:
We have consciously and systematically pursued the relations between isomorphic (similar-patterned or same-shaped) elements (1) in the present history of signs and symptoms, (2) the mother's environmental pressures and her reactions, signs and symptoms, during the first trimester when she was carrying this individual, and the signs and symptoms manifested by the subject during the re-experiencing of the events of the first three months in
the womb.156
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151Ibid.
152Ibid.
153Ibid.
154This is so because: "what the subject re-experiences from the first trimester is understood to be, in part, due to the direct imprint of the mother's feelings on the feelings of the foetus (as, for instance, the mother's deep sorrow at the recent or still unresolved and unaccepted death of a parent persistently fed into the foetus throughout the first trimester)." (ibid., 1).
155Lake, "Supplement to Newsletter No.39" 4.
156Lake, "The Internal Consistency of the Theory of a Maternal-Foetal Distress Syndrome," 2.
254
One example of "patterning" that Lake clearly delineated as originating in the first trimester of intra-uterine life was homosexuality. In Tight Corners in Pastoral Counselling, Lake related his views on the psychogenesis of homosexuality:
Insofar as we are now looking confidently at the first trimester for the origins of schizoid affliction, it is the same first trimester that we will look to discover the origins of homosexuality in men and possibly also in women
The question arises, why, in association with feelings of intense distress and revulsion at being invaded and surrounded by so much female misery, there should also be this heartache for the intimate love of a man. The answer, given at this moment of the reliving of experience early in the womb, by a sufficient number of homosexual men . . . is that this yearning is a result of the transfusion of exactly that sate of mind and emotional longing in the mother, from her to the foetus, through the leto-placental circulation. . . . It is this combination of the mother's emotional distress at their life situation plus her yearning for the intimate love of her man that are transferred into and impressed upon the foetus, early in intra-uterine life.157
Lake continues his discussion by relating his theories regarding the etiological dynamics of lesbianism158 and then follows with an affirmation, that although he views the origins of homosexuality to be in the first trimester, later environmental determinants also play a part.159
I conclude that though the psychogenic roots of homosexuality in men and women in the first trimester can now be taken as a workable hypothesis, rooted in and related to the maternal-foetal distress syndrome, the dynamics of each person are quite individual and specific. They will certainly have gathered later determinants in subsequent trimesters, in difficult births and in all the successive stages of psycho-sexual development.160
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157Lake, Tight Corners in Pastoral Counselling, 149-150.
158Lake begins this section by asking the question "Is it not absurd to posit, in a woman who has just discovered (or not yet discovered) that she is pregnant, a fierce desire to be close, not to her husband, but to some woman or other?" He then answers by stating "It is by no means absurd." He explains this possible reaction as an emotional regression of sorts to her own dependency upon her mother. Thus, the longing for closeness that is absent and pined for is that of a women, and it is this that is transfused to the developing female fetus within her." (ibid., 150-151).
159Lake writes that the classic Freudian/Fenichel interpretation of male homosexuality as associated with weak or absent fathers an/or mothers is still germane: "Without denying that childhood conditioning has reinforcing or inhibiting effects, our evidence points to the relevance of the Freud-Fenichel observations about weak and emotionally or actually absent fathers, and mothers also, not in its post-natal but in its pre-natal causality, in fact, as part of the maternal-foetal distress syndrome." (ibid., 149).
160Ibid. 152. Lake reaffirmed this thinking elsewhere: "We thought initially that the pervasive traumatic influence of maternal distress on the foetus would be spread (if it occurred at all) throughout the nine months of pregnancy. We have now modified our thinking in the wake of the evidence that the first trimester is the locus for most of the catastrophes, for most of the sufferers from the M-FDS. The near approach of the birth and the birth process itself brings with it a new series of distresses, but these produce a different syndrome if there has been no initiating and patterning distress in the first trimester." (Lake, "The Internal Consistency of the Theory of a Maternal-Foetal Distress Syndrome," 3).
255
Lake was certainly willing to subject this conceptual scheme to investigation. He wrote regarding the two independent variable cited above:
The hypothesis is nullified if there should be, over a series of well-investigated cases with reasonably informative parents, no significant correlation between the feelings and background emotional colouring and the sex drive of the subject with that of his mother, overt or suppressed, in the early months of pregnancy.
It would also be nullified if pre-natal integration work did not lead to a reliving of the complained-of symptoms . . . when focusing on the first trimester. So far, the hypothesis has not been nullified on either count.161
Some recent research finding have lent support to some of Lake's hypotheses regarding the psychogenesis of homosexuality. Several retrospective studies162 have found correlations between stressful maternal life events which occurred during pregnancy and the incidence of adult male homosexuality. Dorner and his colleagues found that out of 800 homosexual males, "highly significantly more homosexuals were born during the stressful war (World War II) and early post-war period than in the years before or after this stressful period. This finding suggested that stressful maternal life events, if occurring during pregnancy may represent in fact, an etiogenetic risk factor for the development of sexual variations in the male offspring."163
Another study164 compared the answers of 100 heterosexual men with 100 bi- and homosexual men of the same age to questions relating to maternal stress during their prenatal life. The highest significant correlation was found in homosexual men, followed by bi-sexual men and maternal stress. One-third of the homosexual men reported severe maternal distress while they were in utero (ie. death of someone close, rape, severe anxiety, abandonment by partner), and one-third reported moderate maternal stress. Compared with this data, none of the heterosexual men reported severe stress and only 10% reported moderate stress.
_______________
161ibid.
162G. Domer, I. Geier, L Ahrens, L. Krell, G. Münx, H. Sieler, E. Kittner, and H. Müller, "Prenatal Stress as Possible Aetiogenetic Factor of Homosexuality in Human Males," Endokrinologie 75 (1980): 365-368; G. Dorner, W. Rohde, F. Stahl, L Krell and W.G. Masius, "A Neuroendocrine Predisposition for Homosexuality in Men." Archives of Sexual Behavior 4 (1975): 1-8.
163Dorner, "Significance of Hormone-dependent Brain Development and Pre-and Early Postnatal Psychophysiology for Preventative Medicine." 426.
164G. Dorner, B. Schenk, B. Schmiedel and L Ahrens, "Stressful Events in Prenatal Ufe of Bi- and Homosexual Men," Experimental CIinical Endocrinology 81 (1983): 83-87.
256
What might explain such results is the effect of neurohormones released under the aegis of the hypothalamus on the developing fetus during the first trimester in response to the environmental stresses that the mother experiences. Lake seemed to anticipate that corroboration of his theory of "umbilical affect" and "patterning" might best be done through animal studies. Regarding homosexuality he wrote:
I am not well informed as to research in animals. It would be surprising if no studies had been done on the effect of stress applied to pregnant mammals on the behavior and psychological reactions of their offspring. I am open to information on this point.165
Indeed, the emerging field of psychoneuroendocrinology has corroborated some of Lake's ideas regarding the etiology of homosexuality. In a series of studies by Dorner166 and his colleagues 167 on various animals, permanent alterations in adult sexual behavior were
produced by neuroendocrine changes during critical brain organization stages during the embryonic period. Since the same basic neuroendocrinological systems are functional in human beings as in the experimental animals, Dorner made the following hypothesis:
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165Lake, Tight Corners in Pastoral Counselling, 153.
166G. Dorner, "Tierexperimentelle Untersuchungen zur Frage emer hormonellen Pathogenese der Homosexualitat," Acta Biologicus Medicus Germanica 19(1967): 569-584; G. Dorner, "Hormone Induction and
Prevention of Female Homosexuality," Journal of Endocrinology 42 (1968): 163-164; G. Dorner, "Die Bedeutung der sexualhormonabhangigen Hypothalamusdifferenzierung fur die Gonadenfunktion und das
Sexualverhalten," Acta Biologicus Medicus Germanica 23 (1989): 709-712; G. Dorner, "The Influence of Sex Hormones during the Hypothalamic Differentiation and Maturation Phases on Gonadal Function and Sexual
Behavior during the Hypothalamic Functional Phase," Endokrinologie 56 (1970): 280-291.
167G. Dorner, F. Docke and G. Hinz, "Entwicklung und Ruckbildung neuroendokrin bedingter mannucher Homosexualitat. Acta Biologicus Medicus Germanica 21 (1968): 577-580; G. Dorner, F. Docke and G. Hinz, "Homo- and Hypersexuality in Rats with Hypothalamic Lesions," Neuroendocrinology 4 (1969): 20-24; G. Dorner, F. Docke and G. Hinz, "Paradoxical Effects of Estrogen on Brain Differentiation," Neuroendocrinology 7 (1971): 146-155; G. Domer, F. Docke and S. Moustafa, "Homosexuality in Female Rats Following Testosterone Implantation in the Anterior Hypothalamus," Journal of Reproductive Fertility 17 (1968): 173-175; G. Domer, F. Docke and S. Moustafa, "Differential Localization of a Male and a Female Hypothalamic Mating Center," Journal of Reproductive Fertility 17(1968): 583-586; G. Dorner and J. Fatschel, "Wirkungen neonatal verabreichter Androgene und Antiandrogene auf Sexualverhalten und Fertilitat von Rattenweibchen," Endokrinologie 56 (1970): 29-48; G. Dorner and G. Hinz, "Induction and Prevention of Male Homosexuality by Androgen," Journal of Endocrinology 40 (1968): 387-8; G. Dorner and G. Hinz, "Mannlicher Hypogonadismus mit sekundarer Hyposexualitat nach hochdosierten Gaben von Ostrogenen wahrend der hypothalamischen Differenzierungsphase, Endokrinologie 58 (1971): 227-33; G. Dorner and G. Hinz, "Apparent Effects of Neurotransmitters on Sexual Differentiation of the Brain without Mediation of Sex Hormones," Endokrinologie 71 (1978): 104-108; G. Dorner and J. Staudt, "Structural Changes in the Preoptic Anterior Hypothalamic Area of the Male Rat, Following Neonatal Castration and Androgen Treatment," Neuroendocrinology 3 (1968): 136-140; G. Dorner and J. Staudt, "Structural Changes in the Hypothalamic Ventromedial Nucleus of the Male Rat, Following Neonatal Castration and Androgen Treatment." Neuroendocrinology 4 (1969): 278-281.
257
Primary hypo-, bi- or homosexuality produced by androgen deficiency in males and androgen excess in females during sex-specific brain differentiation might correspond etiologically to primary hypo-, bi- or homosexuality in human
beings.168
Thus, a neuropsychoendocrinological process occurs, whereby certain psychosocial influences in the mother's environment cause an intra-uterine environment that in turn causes hypothalamic predispositions in the fetal morphology to respond psychologically in particular
ways. As this relates to sexuality, Dorner writes that "prenatal psychosocial influences, which are able to affect the levels of systemic hormones and/or neurotransmitters, should . . . be regarded as possible etiologic factors in the development of sexual deviations."169 Several studies170 have clearly demonstrated this in rats, finding that prenatal stress tended to demasculinize males rats in terms of testosterone levels and observed behavior. Dorner cites another study that distinguishes the pre-natal stress as crucial:
We have observed bi- or even homosexual behavior in prenatally stressed male rats after castration plus estrogen treatment in adulthood, whereas
prenatally non-stressed but later equally treated males displayed heterosexual behavior.171 Hence, prenatal stress can predispose to the development of bior even homosexual behavior in males.172
Research into other environmentally caused hormonal fluctuations in the prenatal period have also shown the deleterious effect of the post-natal predisposition. For instance, research on overnutrition173 and undernutrition174 resulting in changes in the insulin and/or
_______________
168Dorner, "Significance of Hormone-dependent Brain Development and Pre-and Early Postnatal Psychophysiology for Preventative Medicine," 423.
169ibid., 425.
170F. Stahl, F. Gotz, I. Poppe, P. Amendt, and G. Dorner, "Pre- and Early Postnatal Testosterone Levels in Rat and Human," in Hormones and Braln Development , Developments in Endocrinology, Vol.3, eds. G. Dorner and M. Kawakami (Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedial Press, 1978), 99-109.
171F. Gotz and G. Dorner, "Homosexual Behavior in Prenatally Stressed Male Rats after Castration and Estrogen Treatment in Adulthood," Endocrinologie 76 (1980): 115-117.
172Dorner, "Significance of Hormone-dependent Brain Development and Pre-and Early Postnatal Psychophysiology for Preventative Medicine," 425.
173S. Franková, "Behavioral Responses of Rats to Early Overnutrition," Nutritional Metabolism 12 (1970): 228-239; G. Dorner, H. Grychtolik, and M. JuIit:z, "Überernahrung in den ersten drei Lebensmonaten als entscheidender Riskofaktor für die Entwicklung von ettsucht und ihrer Folgeerkrankungen," Deutsch Gesundheit Wesen 32 (1977): 6-9; G. Dorner, N. Hagen and W. Witthuhn, "Die frühpostnatale Überernahrung als atiopathogenetischer Faktor der Erwachsenenfettsucht," Acta Biologica Medicus Germanica 35 (1976): 799-803.
174G. P. Ravelli, "Obseity in Young Men after Famine Exposure in utero and Early Infancy," The New England Journal of Medicine, (1976):349-353.
258
glucose levels during critical periods of fetal brain development have been found to alter irreversibly "the function and tolerance ranges of hypothalamic control centers for glucose metabolism."175 This has been cited as a predisposing risk factor in obesity,176 diabetes
mellitus,177 and atherosclerosis.178
Interestingly, the predisposing effects of neurohormones and other endocrinal effects does not end at birth. Rather, the source of the hormones changes from mother to child himself, but the effect can be just as profound. For instance, the postnatal psychosocial effects of extended handling, electric shocks,179 maternal deprivation180 overnutrition181.
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175Dorner, "Significance of Hormone-dependent Brain Development and Pre-and Early Postnatal Psychophysiology for Preventative Medicine," 426.
176G. Dorner, "Die mogliche Bedeutung der pra und/oder perinatalen Ernahrung für die Pathogenese der Obesitas," Acta Biologica Medicus Germanica 30 (1973): K19-K22; G. Dorner, "Über den Einfluss der früpostnatalen Ernahrung auf die Korpergrosse im Adoleezentenalter," Acta Biologica Medicus Germanica 37 (1978): 1149-1151.
177G. Domer and A. Mohnike, "Zur moglichen Bedeutung der pra und/oder frühposnatalen Ernahrung fur die Pathogenese des Diabetes mellitus," Acta Biologica Medicus Germanica 31 (1973): K7-K1O; G. Dorner and A. Mohnike, "Further Evidence for a Predominantly Maternal Transmission of Maturity-onset Diabetes," Endokrinologie 68 (1976): 121-124; G. Dorner and A. Mohnike, "Zur Bedeutung der perinatalen Überernahrung für die Pathogenese der Fettsucht under des Diabetes mellitus," Deutsch Gesundheit Wesen 32 (1977): 2325-2328; G. Dorner, A. Mohnike, D. Honigmann, P. Singer, and H. Padelt, "Zur moglichen Bedeutung eines pranatalen Hyperinsulinismus für die postnatale Entwicklung Diabetes mellitus," Endokrinologie 61 (1973):
430-432; G. Dorner, A. Mohnike, and E. Steindel, "On Possible Genetic and Epigenetic Modes of Diabetes Transmission," Endokrinologie 66 (1975): 225-227; G. Dorner, A. Mohnike, and H. Thoslke, "Further Evidence for the Dependence of Diabetes Prevalence on Nutrition during Perinatal Life," Experimental Clinical Endocrinology 84 (1984): 129-133.
178G. Dorner, H. Hailer and W. Leonhard, "Zur moglichen Bedeutung der pra- un oder frühpostnatalen Ernahrung für die Pathogenese der Arteriosklerose," Acta Biologica Medicus Germanica 31 (1973): 1(31-1(35.
179H. Denenberg, "Critical Periods, Stimulus Input and Emotional Reactivity: A Theory of Infantile Stimulation," Psychological Review 71 (1964): 335-351.
180G. Dorner, R. Bluth and R. Tonjes, "Acetylcholine Concentrations in the Developing Brain Appear to Aflect Emotionality and Mental Capacity in Later Life," Acta Biologica Medicus Germanica 41(1982): 721-723.
181G. Dorner and H. Grychtolik, "Long-Lasting Ill-eflects of Neonatal Qualitative and/or Quantitative Dysnutrition in the Human," Endokrinologie 71 (1978): 81-88.
259
and malnutrition,182and the administration of various neurodrugs183 all resulted in permanent neurochemical changes in the brain and/or permanent alterations of emotionality, exploratory behavior, learning capability and memory capacity. This certainly would correspond to Lake's statements regarding the ongoing pre-natal and post-natal determinants to various behavior states.
Dorner has proposed184 two ontogenetic organization rules for the neuroendocrine system, the second185 of which clearly has application to Lake's notions of "patterning":
During the pre- and/or early post-natal life, systemic hormones and neurotransmitters are capable of acting as organizers of the brain, which is the controller of the neuro-endocrine-immune system. Thus, the quantity of the systemic hormones and neurotransmitters co-determines during a critical period of brain development, the quality, ie. the responsiveness, of their own central nervous system controllers and hence the functional and tolerance ranges of their own feedback systems throughout life. . . . Abnormal levels of systemic hormones and neurotransmitters, which can be induced by abnormal conditions in the psychosocial and/or natural environment, can act as teratogens and lead to permanent physiological and/or psychological dysfunctions in later life. Thus many malfunctions of reproduction, metabolism, information processing, and immunity called up to now idiopathic, essential, cryptogenic, primary or genuine can be explained by pre- and/or early postnatal psycho- and /or physiological processes. Therefore, 'structural teratology' (teratomorphology) . . . [must be] supplemented by [a] 'functional
teratology' teratopsychophysiology).186
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152G. Hinz, K. Hecht, W. Rhode, and G. Domer, "Long-term Effects of Early Postnatal Nutrition on
Subsequent Body Weight Galn, Emotionality and Learning Behavior in Male Rats," Experimental CIinicaI EndocrinoIogy 82 (1983): 73-77; B. Rodgers, "Feeding in Infancy and Later Ability and Attainment: A
Longitudinal Study," Developmental Medical Child Neurology 20 (1978): 421-426; V.S. Ryan, "Effect of Prenatal and Postnatal Nutrition on Development, Behavior, and Physiology of the Rat" (Ph.D. diss., Wayne
State Univ, 1977).
153G. Dorner, "Further Evidence of Permanent Behavioral Changes in Rats Treated Neonatally with Neurodrugs," Endokrinologie 68 (1976): 345-348; G. Dorner, K. Hecht, and G. Hinz, "Teratopsychogenetic Effects Apparently Produced by Nonphysiological Neurotransmitter Concentrations during Brain Differentiation," EndokrinoIogie 68 (1976)1-5; K. Hecht, M. Poppei, T. Schlegel, G. Hinz, R. Tonjes, R. Gotz and G. Dorner, "Long-term Behavioral Effects of Psychotropic Drugs Administered during Brain Development in Rats," in Hormones and Brain Development, vol.3, eds. G. Dorner and M. Kawakami (Amsterdam: Elsevier/North Holland Biomedical Press, 1978), 277-283; G. Hinz, F. Docke and G. Dorner, "Long-term Changes of Sexual Functions in Rats Treated Neonatally with Psychotropic Drugs," Hormones and Brain Development, vol.3, eds. G. Dorner and M. Kawakami (Amsterdam: Elsevier(North Holland Biomedical Press, 1978), 121-127.
184Dorner, "Die mogliche Bedeutung der pra- undloder perinatalen Ernahrung für die Pathogenese der Obesitas," 107-123.
185The first is defined as follows: "During a critical period of brain differentiation. an open-loop regulatory system is converted into a feed-back control system." (Dorner, "Significance of Hormone-dependent Brain Development and Pre-and Early Postnatal Psychophysiology for Preventative Medicine," 425)
186ibid., 429.
260
That Lake affirmed this "functional teratology" is obvious. The source of the "abnormal conditions in the psychosocial environment" were, for Lake, variable. He writes that the "influx of maternal distress,"187 which Dorner refers to as "abnormal levels of systemic hormones and neurotransmitters", may result from her "distress in relation to the world. It may be due to her marriage, to her husband's withdrawal rather than more intimate supporting when he is asked urgently for more than his personality can easily give. It may be due to the family's economic or social distress in a distressed neighborhood. . . . If she is grieving the loss of, or nursing a still dying parent, the sorrow overwhelms her and overwhelms her fetus."188 Whatever the cause, "the pain of the world, picked up by the family, is funnelled by the mother into the fetus."189 Included in this dynamic then, is "both the registering of the intrusion of the mother's condition, of yearning, anxiety, fear, anger, disgust, bitterness, jealousy, etc. into the fetus, and its own emotional response to this distressed and distressing invasion."190 This is exactly what a teratopsychophysiology describes.
The fifth and final question regarding the M-FDS as a scientific paradigm relates to the question of memory. While this issue has already been touched upon briefly, it is important to note that Lake's assumption of the authenticity and verity of fetal memories as they present themselves in recall of whatever type is. certainly open to question.
The term "childhood amnesia" was coined by Freud191 to account for the paucity of conscious memories of early childhood. Indeed, several researchers have found that the mean age of their earliest memory is between 39192 and 42 months.193 This would not present a
_______________
187Lake, "Studies in Constricted Confusion" C41
188Lake, "Theology and Personality," 66.
189Ibid.
190Lake, "Studies in Constricted Confusion," C41.
191Sigmund Freud. Psychopathology of Everyday Life (New York: Mentor Books, 1951).
192GiIliam Cohen, Memory in the Real World (London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989)131.
193G.J. Dudycha and M.M. Dudycha, "Childhood Memories: A Review of the Literature," Psychological Bulletin 4 (1941): 688-682.
261
problem for Lake, due to his belief that most of the "memories" of the fetal period, and indeed, birth, are unconscious, and thus need to be elicited by means of hypnosis, LSD, or deep- breathing.
Since much of the "evidence" that Lake uses to buttress the M-FDS consists of reported "memories", the question of the content of these memories remains. Unfortunately, Lake makes no distinctions between the various dimensions of memory, thus confusing the issue. Researchers have suggested that "memory" is divided up into multiple systems, each operating according to separate principles. One early distinction between two types of memory was made by Tulving,194 who distinguished episodic memory of an experiential nature from semantic memory involving language and information. Memory of a semantic type is dependant upon language and is described by Tulving as follows:
It is a mental thesaurus, organized knowledge a person possesses about words and other verbal symbols, their meaning and referents, about relations among them and about rules, formulas, and algorithms for the manipulation of these symbols, concepts and relations.195
Episodic memory, according to Tulving, is autobiographical and involves the particular combinations of sensations, feelings, thoughts and behavior unique to the individual. Included in this memory sub-system would be the further sub-systems of memory related to sensation, perception and affect. Episodic memory thus contains representations of an individual's experiences "according to their temporal and contextual relations to those of other events."196
Tulving, following up on Winograd, later added a third memory system, called procedural memory,191 which consists of connections between stimuli and responses. Also included are various motor memory skills such as turning over, sitting up, and operating equipment.
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194E. Tulving, "Episodic and Semantic Memory," in Organization of Memory eds. E. Tulving and W. Donaldson (London: Wiley, 1972).
195ibid, 380.
196Vernon H. Gregg, Introduction to Human Memory (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986) 24.
197E. Tulving, Elements of Episodic Memory (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1983); Tulving, "How Many Memory Systems are There?", 385-398.
282
When we examine the "memories" that Lake reports as evidence, they mostly consist of the episodic type, although procedural memory is also present. For instance, Lake reports that many persons "reliving" their prenatal and perinatal experiences, make various motor
movements quite representative of those developmental periods. Very few memories of the semantic type are reported; this being consistent with the fact that the language skills necessary for encoding such memories are not yet present.
The evidence regarding the reliability and verity of autobiographical and episodic memories is mixed. In one study, Field198 analyzed interviews of individuals carried out on people at age 30, and again at age 47, and lastly, at age 70. Regarding questions about
education, family, occupation and relationships, the average correlation for factual questions over the 40-year span was .88, while questions regarding attitudes and emotions were less, .43.
Other studies have shown that episodic memories tend to be grouped together according to similarities, often forming a composite memory199 and that chronological information is often lacking.200 Both recency201 and primacy effects202 have been
observed with episodic memories, and research shows that they tend to get less accurate over time.203 The major determinants of memorability seem to be the presence of an
significant temporal event,204 the relative emotionality and perceived importance of the event and rehearsal.205
Lake's report of "memories" of the fetal and embryonic life are essentially episodic. While it is conceivable that such memories do indeed exist, they must be interpreted through the grid of the difficulties described above. Certainly the retention of such "memories" is consistent with the findings that high emotionality and importance tends to be correlated with retained memories. Perhaps those who do not have such memories did not experience these events as emotionally charged. Thus, Lake's finding that extremely negative fetal experiences seem to be best and most vividly remembered correlates with the evidence.
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198D. Field. "Retrospective Reports by Healthy Intelligent Elderly People of Personal Events of their Adult
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