ABSTRACT
The condition in which man finds himself at the beginning of his individual life has always been invested with quite special interest for the investigator. The new-born child, unable to cope as yet with the never-ending stimuli of his new world, tends to take refuge again in his former condition of life, which was almost entirely free from stimuli or strain of any kind; at first indeed by far the greater portion of his existence consists of such a return. A difficult complicated birth is, not only for the mother but for the child as well, a marked interference with the normal course of life; that, under certain circumstances, not only enduring physical but also psychic effects may be its result seems quite possible. But to establish the truth of such birth "traumata" we need comprehensive material of a statistical and observational nature as to the psychic developments of individuals whose birth took place under abnormal conditions.
