A Phenomenon of Rebirth: Coming Alive in Analytic and Medical Patients

The thesis of this paper is that phenomena of rebirth in medical and surgical patients going through life-threatening illnesses are dynamically related to similar phenomena of analytic insight and generally to peak emotional experiences. Under rebirth phenomena in physical illnesses are subsumed those psychological and behavioral happenings, whether disintegrative or not, through which the patient resumes interest in and living in the world about him. I have found, although it is often not appreciated at the time of the experience, that such phenomena are of frequent occurrence, and that, unless the manifestations are dramatic, they are likely to be ignored by patient and physician alike. Also, the dramatic manifestations, such as post-operative psychosis and depression and acute identity crises, including psychosis, in psychiatric patients are viewed frequently as retrogressive and interruptive, rather than as a struggle toward intrapsychic and interpersonal reorientation. The data also illustrate a relationship between the duration of physical illness and the significance of the illness in the patient's living to the intensity and emotional depth of the rebirth phenomenon. That is, short-term illness is generally less incorporated into the mode of living than is long-term illness, and the experiencing of coming alive tends to be less intense in short-term illness.

The concept of rebirth is ancient and carries with it religious significance and symbolism from many cultures, primitive, Eastern and Western. The nature of rebirth phenomena, of identity crises and concepts of positive disintegration have been described, and their psychic significance has been elucidated by Kelman in connection with cyclical disintegrating and integrating,¹ with finding oneself through losing oneself, and giving birth to oneself,² and he has clearly elucidated the process in “Kairos and The Therapeutic Process.”³ Maslow⁴ indicates the peak emotional nature of postoperative and other expe