The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra. In contrast to the approaches of conventional religion, tantra does not attempt to soothe the turmoil of existence with consoling promises of heaven and salvation. The tantric practitioner chooses to confront the bewildering and chaotic forces of fear, aggression, desire, and pride, and to work with them in such a way that they are channeled into creative expression, loving relationships, and wisely engaged forms of life.[1]

Long-term practice of ceremonial sexuality. Sexuality in Western culture is often complicated and confusing. As a major aspect of the human experience it is an important area of study. A subculture exists that explores alternative sexual experiences as a spiritual practice. Twenty participants of Tantra, Quodoushka, and Taoist sexual practices participated in the study. This study found that the long-term practice of ceremonial sexuality is a viable spiritual practice. The experiences of the participants included instances of altered states of consciousness, direct experiences of the Divine, enhanced self-esteem, and intimate connection to others. Each participant found that his or her life had been enriched through practicing ceremonial sexuality, and each reported challenges and pitfalls. These included challenges in relationships with primary and family relationships, relationships with teachers of ceremonial sexuality, and cultural taboos. Background and family history of the participants varied, however the majority reported that they came from conservative homes in which sexuality was not discussed openly. Several reported repressive sexual education or sex-negative messages from parents or religion. For these participants engaging in ceremonial sexuality included the challenge of breaking through these early experiences. Both women and men reported body image issues that were healed through the practice of ceremonial sexuality. Penis and breast size, body type and shape, and idealized body expectations were all encountered as challenges. Learning to love and appreciate their bodies as they were led to enhanced self-esteem and confidence. The practice provided all of the participants with tools for creating better relationships with significant others and deeper intimate relationships in general. The practice creates challenges in relationships, such as jealousy over partners engaging with others in ceremony. Overcoming these challenges is a focus of maturity in the practice. Seventeen of the 20 participants stated that they found an increased sense of spiritual connection through their practice of ceremonial sexuality. When asked if they felt they had benefited from the practice all of the participants enthusiastically responded yea. The fact that all continue their practice is evidence that for these twenty participants the benefits out weigh the pitfalls.[2]

Testimonials of practitioners. In a combination of personal narrative and theoretical presentation, the life of the polyamorous tantric circle "Cherry Blossom" (founded in 1985) and the teaching of the tantric Master Aba Aziz Makaja are presented. The disassociation of body and mind and consequent separation of sexuality and spirituality are left behind through a concise presentation of Makaja's "Theology of Sexuality." The narrative shows how, on the one hand, sexual intercourse can support a person's spiritual efforts and accelerate his or her self-realization or realization of God; on the other hand, how spiritual growth increases one's ability to love and therefore enjoy. Through the example of her intimate life, the author, who lives polyamorously, shows that the essence of Tantra is the disciplined training of virtues, including love, truth, and consciousness. Through this training jealousy is transformed into joy as a result of one's partner's happiness. Sexuality becomes conscious and ecstatic, and the realization of God is accelerated.[3]

Religious insight in psychoanalysis. Religion and psychoanalysis move toward a shared sense of the apprehension of the highest quality of mind as object. Whether this be self as Jung thought of it or Godhead, personal or impersonal, may be merely a matter of terms. As we actually experience them we may simply be unable to differentiate clearly the human from the divine, just as we cannot distinguish the object as a thing in itself from the phenomenon as the mind constructs it. Contemporary psychoanalysis has taken the object's primacy to development as Klein described it and brought out its duality in the internal parental couple. Of all religions, it is tantric Buddhism that anticipates this development. The importance of the couple symbolizing the object and its psychic contribution to container/ contained is reminiscent of the Oedipus complex and its dissolution. The religious repudiation of the senses finds its equivalent in the psychoanalytic technique of abstinence. This can be seen in religion to be a matter of making room for religious experience and not just moralism. This is explained by Bion in the idea of saturation and the way the senses may obscure the direct apprehension of mind. It may be that as religion passes from the exoteric belief in the unprovable to the esoteric discipline of religious experience, it ceases to be religion at all and becomes an empty concept, something we can know only by experience and cannot possess as an object of knowledge.[4]

Insight into a tantric community. By constantly developing the ability to love consciously and unconditionally, it is possible to transcend the problems of a monogamous partnership, as well as the jealousy that often accompanies it. Here is a personal account of the transformational process of one of the first members of Komaja's tantric circle Kamala, which has existed for thirteen years and has fifteen members. This demonstrates her struggle to be free from the limitations and expectations acquired from parental and social belief systems, as well as the illusions surrounding sexuality. Included are several practical examples of how the spiritual schooling of Aba Aziz Makaja, founder and spiritual master of the international community Komaja, assists in the cultivation and spiritualization of sexuality, as well as the development of conscious love. The fruits of this transformational process lead to intensive spiritual development, a happier and healthier love-erotic life, and long lasting relationships. Here is a glimpse of what could be the possible future of marriage.[5]

Mysticism distinguished from psychosis. Examining the fundamental conceptual organization of psychotic and mystical mental states not only elucidates the observed similarities between them, but can highlight the differences, and the processes by which negatively evaluated pathological features can be seen to emerge. Oriental philosophical systems such as Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, and Tantric Hinduism, provide conceptualizations of mystical states of mind, from which a model can be drawn, while the epistemologies of these systems provide an illuminating metaphysical perspective on both psychotic and mystical experiences. It is concluded that mystical and psychotic experiences can be distinguished not only by emotional and behavioral consequences, but by real differences in the states themselves; certain features, such as loss of subject/object boundaries and loss of the relative dimensional structure of perception, are common to both processes.[6]

Experiences of tantric couples. One area that has engaged some couples is the goal of combining sexuality and spirituality. Some couples in the United States and Europe are experimenting with and practicing ritual and techniques that are being termed tantra, sacred sexuality, or spiritual sex, and many hold the belief that these practices bring them considerable benefit. The purpose of the present study was to understand the meaning that the ritual of sacred sexuality/tantric practice has for couples who engage in this practice. Additional goals were to understand how these practices affect relationship satisfaction for the couples, and how couples that practice sacred sexuality experience their relationship. Participants in the study were ten couples who had been practicing sacred sexuality consistently between one and ten years. Data collection was completed by personal interview, with each interview taped and transcribed. The analysis was informed from a qualitative perspective, and data inspected by an interpretive phenomenological analysis. Detailed review of the original interview transcripts revealed five major themes and three minor themes. Major themes were: (1) feeling of deepened connectedness with each other and relationship satisfaction; (2) feeling of spirituality or spiritual experience; (3) experience of altered states of consciousness or mystical experiences; (4) experience of viewing the relationship as an opportunity for relationship and personal growth; and (5) experience of deepened connection and involvement with the community at large. Data analysis supported the general view of the couples that the practice of sacred sexuality had a positive impact on the relationship and on each partner. It was also apparent that the area of sexuality and spirituality is a relatively unexplored and that it offers many opportunities for further research in its depth.[7]

Tantric brain states. We studied autonomic and EEG correlates of Tantric Yoga meditation in 3 groups of Ss as they progressed from normal consciousness into meditation. The groups consisted of 10 college student controls, mean age 22.9 yrs, 10 "trainee" meditators, mean age 23.7 yrs, and 10 "expert" meditators, mean age 25.8 yrs. Measures of skin resistance, heart rate, respiration, autonomic orienting response, resting EEG, EEG alpha and theta frequencies, sleep-scored EEG, averaged evoked responses, and subjective experience were employed. Unlike most previously reported meditation studies, proficient meditators demonstrated increased autonomic activation during meditation while unexperienced meditators demonstrated autonomic relaxation. During meditation, proficient meditators demonstrated increased alpha and theta power, minimal evidence of EEG-defined sleep, and decreased autonomic orienting to external stimulation. An episode of sudden autonomic activation was observed that was characterized by the meditator as an approach to the Yogic ecstatic state of intense concentration. It is concluded that these findings challenge the current "relaxation" model of meditative states.[8]

Tantric cannibis use in India. The sacred beverage described in the Veda texts was probably made from a hallucinogenic mushroom, but it was replaced by hallucinogenic hemp in the 7th-21th centuries. Oral ingestion of marihuana and sexual intercourse were ritualized into a ceremony of great liberation.[9]

A Jungian seminar on tantra. At the invitation of the Psychological Club of Zürich (the circle surrounding Jung), the Indologist Hauer of Tübingen held a seminar on the Yoga in October, 1932. He treated especially the Kundalini or Tantra Yoga on the basis of the Sanskrit text The Six Bodily Centers, which is known in the West through Arthur Avalon's translation The Serpent Power (London, 1919). These centers (Chakra) represent psychic experiences which in time, place and expression are widely separated from us and can be understood only by persons having an inner affinity for them. Approaching the subject through religious history, Hauer brought out the dual man-woman principle, which is the distinguishing characteristic of the Tantra Yoga, and the predominance of one or the other aspect at various eras. A similar rhythm occurs in other religions, including Christianity. Hauer discusses the Hindu methods of experiencing the divine and their working-out in the attitude toward death and evil; also the different forms of Yoga, their metaphysics, the misunderstandings of the West concerning them, and the interpretation of the Chakra. The Tantra Yoga is an attempt to bring harmony into a life which threatens to succumb to a chaotic outbreak of its deepest forces. For this purpose it has created symbols which are the organic forms of experiences that could not be grasped otherwise. The central idea of the Chakra is a hierarchy of the unity of opposites.[10]

In connection with this question of being in love we have always been struck by the phenomenon of sexual over-estimation—the fact that the loved object enjoys a certain amount of freedom from criticism, and that all its characteristics are valued more highly than those of people who are not loved. If the sensual tendencies are somewhat more effectively repressed or set aside, the illusion is produced that the love-object has come to be sensually loved on account of its spiritual merits, whereas on the contrary these merits may really only have been lent to it by its sensual charm.

The tendency that falsifies judgment in this respect is that of idealization. But this makes it easier for us to find our way about. We see that the love-object is being treated in the same way as our own ego, so that when we are in love a considerable amount of narcissistic libido overflows on to the love-object. It is even obvious, in many forms of love choice, that the love-object serves as a substitute for some unattained ego ideal of our own. We love it on account of the perfections that we have striven to reach for our own ego, and that we should now like to procure in this roundabout way as a means of satisfying our narcissism.

From being in love to hypnosis is evidently only a short step. The respects in which the two agree are obvious. There is the same humble subjection, the same compliance, the same absence of criticism, towards the hypnotist just as towards the loved object. There is the same absorption of one’s own initiative; no one can doubt that the hypnotist has stepped into the place of the ego ideal. It is only that everything is even clearer and more intense in hypnosis, so that it would be more to the point to explain being in love by means of hypnosis than the other way round. The hypnotist is the sole love-object, and no attention is paid to any but him. The fact that the ego experiences in a dream-like way whatever he may request or assert reminds us that we omitted to mention among the functions of the ego ideal the business of testing the reality of things. No wonder that the ego takes a perception for real if its reality is vouched for by the mental faculty that ordinarily discharges the duty of testing the reality of things.

The complete absence of tendencies that are uninhibited in their sexual aims contributes further towards the extreme purity of the phenomena. The hypnotic relation is the devotion of someone in love to an unlimited degree but with sexual satisfaction excluded; whereas in the case of being in love this kind of satisfaction is only temporarily kept back, and remains in the background as a possible aim at some later time.

It is interesting to see that it is precisely those sexual tendencies that are inhibited in their aims that achieve such lasting ties between men. But this can easily be understood from the fact that they are not capable of complete satisfaction, while sexual tendencies that are uninhibited in their aims suffer an extraordinary reduction through the discharge of energy every time the sexual aim is attained. It is the fate of sensual love to become extinguished when it is satisfied; for it to be able to last, it must from the first be mixed with purely tender components— with such, that is, as are inhibited in their aims—or it must itself undergo a transformation of this kind.

Hypnosis would solve the riddle of the libidinal constitution of groups for us straight away, if it were not that it itself exhibits some features that are not met by the rational explanation we have hitherto given of it as a state of being in love with the directly sexual tendencies excluded. There is still a great deal in it that we must recognize as unexplained and mystical. It contains an additional element of paralysis derived from the relation between someone with superior power and someone who is without power and helpless—that may afford a transition to the hypnosis of terror that occurs in animals. The manner in which it is produced and its relationship to sleep are not clear; and the puzzling way in which some people are subject to it, while others resist it completely, points to some factor still unknown that is realized in it and that perhaps alone makes possible the purity of the attitudes of the libido that it exhibits.

It is noticeable that, even when there is complete suggestive compliance in other respects, the moral conscience of the person hypnotized may show resistance. But this may be due to the fact that in hypnosis as it is usually practiced some knowledge may be retained that what is happening is only a game, an untrue reproduction of another situation of far more importance to life.

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Communicating with the prenate. After a struggle of many decades, the true dimensions of fetal consciousness are emerging, thanks to a growing literature of firsthand reports from parents and abundant observations of life in the womb. In retrospect, scientific views of the sensory, emotional, and mental nature of prenates and newborns, grounded exclusively in a brain-matter paradigm, were grossly inadequate. A new paradigm is replacing it based on baby awareness and knowing. This presentation offers some initial guidelines for parents and birth professionals who seek two-way communication with babies before birth--a dialog that promises greater safety, meaning, and satisfaction in pregnancy and childbirth.[3]

Born with a purpose. In each individual there is a life project, which can be traced back to conception. The life project exists in the depths of a child's being, close to their essence; from there, it influences all the internal and external processes. The life project contains what a person needs to realize personal potentialities that are present from conception. The life project seldom appears clear to the parents from the beginning although unborn children send signals of their existence and their character. Unfortunately, in our materialistic culture signals from the unborn are systematically ignored, deflected and then forgotten by parents. Education begins from conception and can be properly achieved by parents only if they establish a deep contact with their children, communicating with them, and coming to know their life project.[4]

Fetal awareness of emotions during pregnancy. Contemporary research indicates that the mother's emotional state and that of her unborn child are far more closely related before birth than was thought to be the case only a few years ago. The purpose of this study was to explore possible correlations existing between the primary emotional states of birthmothers during their pregnancies and the subsequent awareness of these emotional states of birthmothers by their offspring. To achieve this goal, 12 pairs of mothers (ages 44 to 85) and their offspring (ages 9 to 61) were hypnotically age regressed to the time of the pregnancy. Hypnotherapy/ideomotor technique was employed, in separate sessions with each mother and each offspring, by licensed professional psychologists, who were selected because they routinely used hypnotherapy in their private practices. Within the findings across all 12 pairs, there were 79 identified instances of correlation, derived from a content analysis from the regression session transcripts. The data from this study yielded a striking variety and quantity of detailed information about prenatal consciousness and a wide range of recalled prenatal experience by the offspring, as well as supporting information from the birthmother.[5]

Prenatal memory recall. Focuses on the experience of healing through prenatal and perinatal recall. Interviews were conducted with 7 adults who variously attested to having healed conditions of: syncope, phobias, arthritis, asthma, migraines, depression, suicidality, obsessive-compulsion, side pain, and dysfunctional interpersonal patterns. Intentions were to: (a) illuminate the experience, (b) examine the benefits and drawbacks, and (c) underscore the impact of obstetric intervention. Existential-phenomenological research methods were used with Hycner's (1982) 15-step analysis for interview data. Two in-depth interviews, a demographics form, and a follow-up question were the instruments used to access data. Data analysis revealed seven individual, two unique, and two general themes. All 7 remembered pre- or perinatal trauma, and subsequent child abuse. Three remembered deleterious effects from obstetric intervention including long-term depression, slowed labor from anesthesia, pain from forceps, and vertigo from inversion at birth. After treatment all co-researchers felt the mitigation of psychological and/or physical conditions they had suffered. Results imply fetal/neonatal memory/consciousness and the need for research into the long and short term effects of obstetric procedures.[6]

Psychospiritual guidance before birth. This paper examines the cross-cultural appearance of myths, stories, customs, and legends that refer to images of protection and guardianship of a fetus before, during, and after birth. Included in this discussion are the Jewish angel Lailah, the Christian guardian angel, the Greek daimon, the Roman genius, the Chinese goddess Kuan-yin, the Mauri goddess Hine-Titama, the Egyptian god Bes, as well as a look at indigenous peoples' mythologies that appoint guardianship status to trees, land, animals, and inanimate objects. An attempt is made to make sense of these images through an examination of the biological aspects of prenatal development and birth, as well as through a more transpersonal or spiritual perspective on human development. It is concluded that further research into these images can help shed light on specific aspects of human development including understanding our need for inner images of protection and guidance, and comprehending the deeper passions or stirrings of "the genius within us," who assists us moving through our lives.[7]

Reliability of birth memory. Compared the birth memories of 10 mother-child pairs to determine the reliability of the memories of the children obtained via hypnoanalysis. Child subjects, who were between 9 and 23 yrs old, had no conscious birth memories. Mothers were 32-46 yrs old at the time of the study. All subjects were capable of hypermnesia. Hypnotic induction was used. Mother and child reports of the same birth varied in perspective, content, and detail, reflecting the fact that the birth experience was somewhat different for each of them. Reports of mothers and children indicated that (1) children's birth memories appeared to be real rather than fantasy; (2) birth memories contained errors; and (3) memory contents suggested a sophisticated level of physical, mental, and emotional consciousness at birth.[8]

Consciousness before birth and after death. Veridical evidence of a physically transcendent source of consciousness comes from both extremes of the life span when central nervous system functioning is compromised, suggesting that some form of personhood can exist independently of known cellular processes associated with the body. In pre- and perinatal accounts, veridical memories have surfaced of events in the first two trimesters, long before the central nervous system is fully functional, continuing through the third trimester, when measurable brain activity begins, until just after birth. In the empirically verifiable out-of-body phase of near-death experience (NDE) accounts, a source of consciousness has been shown to record events when measurable metabolic processes, including brain activity, have ceased altogether. These two states have similar phenomenologies, suggesting that a physically transcendent source representing individual consciousness predates physical life at the moment of conception and survives it after death, and that its maturity and functioning do not directly reflect the level of central nervous system functioning in the body.[9]

Spirit Babies. Reviews the book, Spirit Babies: How to Communicate with the Child You're Meant to Have by Walter Makichen (2005). When do babies become conscious? Is it at conception, at some time in the mother's womb, when they take their first breath? Ancient wisdom from various peoples around the world offers differing answers. The author of this book states that it all starts before conception. And, he says, there is not a one-directional conversation. There is a contract, made by all participants, although sometimes broken. What sets this book apart from many on soul, spirit, out-of-body experiences, near death tales and the like, is that it will likely be understood and acceptable to both those who are devoutly religious and to agnostics. It offers additional insights for those who already believe that human beings come into a body having made a plan for this lifetime. Makichen's perspective is indeed convincing, illustrated with numerous stories of the author's work with clients who have come to him over the years for a variety of reasons. The topics Makichen covers include ones that many pregnancy and birth books leave out – prematurity, miscarriage, abortion and stillbirth – and he seems particularly wise on these subjects yet offers no platitudes nor cookbook remedies. Makichen does offer a wide array of simple yet profound processes for parents-to-be that he calls "meditations." Each of these processes is a combination of inward focusing and quieting down, with visualization and prayer or chants of different kinds, which places the woman or man in a state of calm readiness. He reminds the reader that each prospective parent has a natural connection with their spirit baby. What he offers just enhances that connection, helping the baby to be born healthy.[1]

Emotional architecture of the mind. In recent years, through our research and that of others, we have found unexpected common origins for the mind's highest capacities: intelligence, morality, and sense of self. We have charted critical stages in the mind's early growth, most of which occur even before our first thoughts are registered. At each stage certain critical experiences are necessary. Contrary to traditional notions, however, these experiences are not intellectual, but rather, subtle emotional exchanges. In fact emotional rather than intellectual interaction serves as the mind's primary architect. Our research points towards a new understanding of how the mind develops in the earliest stages of life, one that integrates the child's experience of emotional interactions with the growth of intellectual capacities and, indeed, the very sense of self.[2]

Boot camps for babies. The essence of the advice books is that they treat the baby as an enemy. It is a hostile invader. The mother must arm herself against her baby in order to train it effectively. They inculcate highly anxious parenting. To rock, cuddle a baby to sleep, or slip in an extra feed when no one is looking, makes a woman feel very guilty. If she does not obey the rules to the letter she is failing as a mother. Failure to interact with a baby in an intimate, loving way and offer generous pleasant sensory experiences, such as comforting touch, may have long-term consequences in the development of personality and the ability to form social bonds. There is evidence that the vasopressin and oxytocin neuropeptide systems, important for the establishment of social bonds and the regulation of emotional behavior, are profoundly affected by early social experience. The evidence from history, and from cultures all over the world, is that, by and large, ordinary, spontaneous, loving mothers who are alert to their babies' needs, and who are supported by other women, do better than all the experts put together. Our babies are not our enemies. You don't need an MBA in baby management to be a good mother.[3]

How much do babies see? The visual apparatus in humans is used from birth as an important part of the infant's interaction with the environment. It is a developing sensory modality that at birth is ready to function without prior experience. Eliciting visual behavior in the neonate appears to be positive evidence of central nervous system function. It is difficult to study visual perception in human infants. Direct methods do not work-one cannot ask a neonate what he/she sees since they do not talk. They do, however, initiate limited motor actions and behaviorally and physiologically react to visual stimuli. Indirect assessment methods, such as recording visually evoked potentials (VEP), can become extremely complicated with the data often difficult to interpret. The goal of most of the published literature on infant visual behavior has been to determine infant visual competence as a function of age and/or to describe precisely the corresponding visual behaviors. Gestalt psychology has demonstrated that the individual parts of objects, visual features such as oriented line segments, or incomplete parts of objects, can be organized into coherent wholes. New theories by researchers are moving in a direction that are inspired by and consistent with the tenets of ecological psychology.[4]

Baboons, brains, babies and bonding. On the basis of the extant literature, and inspired by theoretical considerations, we believe that unconscious mimicry serves two important purposes. First, it is an indispensable tool for binding individuals to their social group. Second, and related to that, mimicry may provide a very effective way for the transmission of cultural ways and habits and for the continuous adaptation of individuals to changing social conditions.[5]

The role of familiar names in speech recognition. How do infants find the words in the tangle of speech that confronts them? The present study shows that by as early as 6 months of age, infants can already exploit highly familiar words--including, but not limited to, their own names--to segment and recognize adjoining, previously unfamiliar words from fluent speech. The head-turn preference procedure was used to familiarize babies with short passages in which a novel word was preceded by a familiar or a novel name. At test, babies recognized the word that followed the familiar name, but not the word that followed the novel name. This is the youngest age at which infants have been shown capable of segmenting fluent speech. Young infants have a powerful aid available to them for cracking the speech code. Their emerging familiarity with particular words, such as their own and other people's names, can provide initial anchors in the speech stream.[6]

Intimate contact with your baby. Reviews the book The Vital Touch: How Intimate Contact With Your Baby Leads to Happier, Healthier Development by Sharon Heller (1997). This book is the best, most comprehensive guide to good, early parenting on the market today. This book synthesizes all of the current research on attachment parenting issues, such as baby-wearing, breastfeeding and the family bed. These issues and the corresponding research are vitally important to our babies, who aren't allowed a second chance at childhood. The first third of the book heralds "the power of touch" as "the first connection" and "the rock of love." Touch, or lack of it, profoundly affects birthing practices, newborn stability, the quality of mother-infant attachment, and how much developmentally important sensory stimulation our babies receive. Part two discusses the cultural habits that put us out of touch with our infants: all the containers in which we nest our babies; our prudish sense of our body, which leads to a withholding of affection, unsuccessful nursing, and a distortion of normal sexual development; our lack of support for the nursing mother; and our taboos against co-sleeping. Part three discusses how modern parents can compromise, between nature's call for closeness to their babies and our culture's "plea for distance."[7]

Mothers, Babies and their body language. This book describes, through an eighteen-month research and observational study from pregnancy to the earliest months of life, the complex interactions between mother and baby. Learning to interpret babies' language is a useful basis for getting in touch with his or her needs. This capacity to understand the baby's sign language and needs enhances our communication skills and attunement in other relationships. This book is intended for parents to read through while thinking back to their experience. It is a guide for discovering the space of their body self image, a space to sense, to feel, and to think about, in order to be able to have their needs met. I believe that it is only by acknowledging their own needs that parents can meet the baby's needs and become attuned to her or him.[8]

Mothers’ emotional investment in their babies. In sufficiently mature women, pregnancy and the birth of a baby bring about an adaptive transient increased flexibility in otherwise stable psychic structures, with, specifically, an increased flexibility in ego functions engendered by the anticipatory need to be ready to accommodate to the coming infant, an organism only vaguely known prior to its birth. Once born, the increasingly experienced infant compels accommodations in the mother to which many a mother is surprisingly fluidly responsive. The infant too accommodates to the exigencies imposed by the mother's reality-based needs, expectations, and wishes. The reciprocity and the accommodations both parties make to this childcaring/mothering process require of both much give and take and evolving compromise.[9]

A century of denial in medicine. During the 20th century when medicine rose to dominate childbirth in the United States, it brought with it a denial of infant pain based on ancient prejudices and scientific dogmas no longer supportable. The painful collision of babies with doctors is seen in neonatal intensive care, infant surgery without anesthesia, painful obstetric routines, and genital mutilation of newborn males. This presentation includes a historical review of experiments on infant reactions to pain, the persistence of medical practices causing pain, and speculation about the reasons for professional indifference.[10]

Infant rearing practices in Egypt. Discusses the choice of close contact and low contact child rearing styles among Egyptian mothers, and considers the effects of mothering style on infant personality and behavior. Uneducated mothers living in extended families and educated mothers living in nuclear families in the same village were observed. While uneducated mothers chose the close contact style, educated mothers chose the low contact style. It is suggested that close contact style is selected by mothers who desire an obedient child with strong family attachments, while a low contact style is selected by mothers who desire a more independent, achievement oriented child.[11]