It is our upright posture and large brain which demand an earlier birth. These feelings reveal themselves in our mythology, fairy tales, and even our expectations of a hereafter. After centuries of denial that birth is traumatic, Dr. Janus believes, recent decades of research and experiential events have revealed to us elemental truths of pre- and perinatal life. Janus discusses how Freud, Otto Rank, and other early psychoanalysts viewed the effects of birth trauma on the human psyche. The literature of pre and peri-natal traumas stresses the biographical significance of early birth experiences.
Many authors believe that our feelings of death are inevitably connected to our birth traumas.
These effects, the author believes, can be compensated for by the way the child is received by its parents. By reenacting or reliving our peri-natal traumas in psychotherapy, the author claims that their effects may be ameliorated. Much evidence that prenatal stress produces deleterious effects is presented. Many childhood phobias can be traced to the effects of intrauterine and birth trauma, including fear of the dark, of elevators, and of entering tunnels. The author believes that a large proportion of psychosomatic illnesses, including headaches, asthma, etc. can be directly traced to such traumas as can suicide, criminality, psychosis, and anorexia nervosa.