Childbirth as Initiation: Dar a Luz

Childbirth is an important female initiation experience. Most anthropologists of birth rely on Arnold van Gennep’s three-stage understanding of initiation rituals—separation, liminality, and return. Giving birth within the technology-oriented, medical model is a very different experience than within the age-old, relational midwifery model. Although a dual midwifery–medical birth approach is the norm in most of the world, the medical model dominates birth in the U. S. Personal birth stories illustrate the felt differences in these models, from (1) purely medical births and (2) natural, medical births in the U. S. to (3) natural, midwife-attended births in Chile. Midwifery was dramatically repressed in the U. S. by the early 1900s through the use of racist and misogynist propaganda. Current research on dramatically rising rates of maternal mortality in the U. S., even as these rates are dropping in most developed countries, cites racism as a primary cause but fails to also acknowledge the loss of midwifery practices as another contributing factor. The author concludes with small steps that psychotherapists can take to help mend birth trauma.     

Death and Birth: An Initiation into Midlife

Throughout history people have created rituals and myths in an attempt to make sense of their existence and to provide life with structure and meaning. In postmodern societies, though, these traditional rituals have largely lost their meaning. Transitional turning points such as the highly charged threshold from adolescence into young adulthood are still celebrated but, they have mostly been diminished to social events and photo opportunities. Subsequently they have lost their power to break open the ego structure, which would allow for a new perspective and an opportunity for growth, propelling the youngster into adulthood. There is a growing understanding, though, that the psyche needs transformational experiences during times of transitions to channel the energies inherent in each stage of life. For most people living in Westernized societies, however, initiations happen spontaneously, when life suddenly rubs up so intensely that a person's only choice is to shed his or her skin and to emerge as a changed human being. The author explores the death of her father and the ensuing period of profound grief as an initiation from young adulthood into the more mature life as a mother and wife.     

Initiation and response: The dynamics of sexual interaction

This study examines the extent to which men and women feel comfortable exercising two traditional forms of sexual power, proactive and reactive power. “Proactive power” is defined here as the ability to initiate sexual intercourse and maintain sexual autonomy and has traditionally been possessed and exercised by men. “Reactive power,” or the ability to resist or refuse sexual advances, has traditionally been possessed and exercised by women. Several studies suggest that as men and women's sexual behavior and attitudes become more permissive, a single sexual standard is more likely to exist. This study finds that men feel more comfortable than women initiating sexual intercourse and remaining sexually autonomous, while women feel more comfortable than men refusing such sexual advances. Apparently, a single sexual standard does not yet exist. This study also considers factors that affect men and women's comfortableness in using either reactive or proactive power. The implications of these findings for understanding aspects of men and women's psychological well-being and intimate relationships are discussed.     

Control of Gait Initiation

The initiation of gait from a standing posture by 6 subjects, who took controlled-length steps, was analyzed. Using an inverted-pendulum model, we found that the duration of gait initiation was independent of gait velocity. This finding suggests that subjects' biomechanical constants are the determining factors for initiating movement. Both the instantaneous velocity of the center of gravity at the end of the first step (resulting in the propulsive forces measured on the ground) and the steady-state velocity (resulting in the step length and frequency) varied with step length, whereas step frequency did not. But step frequency and progression velocity were linked, for step frequency always increased in parallel with increased progression velocity. We interpret the correlation between velocity and frequency variations to be a peripheral expression of the posturodynamic control of the step parameters by the progression forces.     

Initiation in hermeneutics: An illustration through the mother-and-daughter archetype

Part of this work was presented to the Canadian Association for Hermeneutics and Post-modern Thought in Winnipeg, Canada, 1986.     

Embodiment: An Introduction

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -