Birth: caesura, catastrophe and psychoanalysis

Abstract

This article aims at discussing, under the light of the psychoanalitical theory, some of the psychological aspects that take place at the moment of birth. To do so, we intend to explore the term caesura, used by Freud in 1926 and resumed by different authors interested in exploring the complexity of this experience
characterized, among other things, by the prematurity of the human baby and its relationship of total dependence at the beginning of its life, and that will relatively continue for many years and will always be present in human relationships. We will also explore the importance of the maternal figure, which represents the environment and is responsible for receiving and offering the psychological support for the newborn. The radical change experimented by the baby when passing from an aquatic environment to the aerial one, as well as the re-organization of the mother’s psychism that happens with the arrival of a child, can be considered radical experiences, which will be considered by different authors as catastrophic. This article aims at understanding this particular approach to this event, trying to understand the meanings of such term and its implications for the establishment of human relationships.