Longings of the pregnant, viewed in light from the East / by Alfred Ela.

  • Ela, Alfred.
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Longings of the pregnant, viewed in light from the East / by Alfred Ela. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the missing keystone to the arch. Autop^ycho- therapy, on the other hand, seems to be acquired by women in the course of repeated childbirths so that, for instance, a table made up of 300 cases^® showed that the heavy percentage of married primiparae who manifested longings, evidently as having been taught that this was the proper thing for them to have, steadily de¬ creased almost to the vanishing point after many confinements. This is parallel to the simi¬ lar cure^® of paralyzed patients (made by themselves, when perhaps incurable while re¬ lying upon the aid of others without giving their owui assistance) ; this cure was through their making instinctive movements largely in¬ duced by the buoyancy (physical and mental) found in the swimming bath, of which the therapeutic use in this connection has been lately learned and which has proved of incal¬ culable value. Which side of the shield bears the true blazon must be adjudged by a more competent investigator. It is hoped that this determina¬ tion will be incidental to the intensive study of the unique psychic state of pregnant women, the lack of which has already been lamented.^^ Meanwhile, great present interest is excited by the flood of unexpected light thrown upon the subject® by a marshaling of material from the East, derived from a civilization unbroken and so far older than ours, and of a people perhaps more acute mentally than are Occidentals. The 6 y