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This book is a real gem – it is musical in both senses of the word. It continues the work of Graham Music and takes us back to literally the very beginning of life; the hidden world of the womb. Music’s previous publications, which are always written in a very personable and accessible style, have introduced readers to the complexity and interaction of the forces of nature and nurture. This is evident in this most recent publication. He presents the very difficult area of neurological and biological functioning in a way that even I, someone who finds it nearly impossible to hold on to any Latin term, can understand.
More than any other book I have read, Womb life takes the reader on a tour of the gestation of a human being. While psychoanalytic authors such as Klein, Bion, Winnicott, Tustin and Meltzer discuss the earliest formation of the self, of the development of a me and not-me, Music takes us back even further to our very cellular beginnings. I used to think Klein’s work highlighted the bedrock of the formation of our personality, but this wonderful publication, along with earlier offerings by authors such as Liley (1972) and Piontelli (1992), make us reassess the origins of the psyche. It reminded me of Bion’s (2005) comments about when is a person born. Why do we date this to a biological birth? Are some of us born before our physical birth and arrive with great psychic sensitivity, while for others it may take several weeks or months to arrive at such a state?
This book has important implications for psychotherapy with children, adolescents and adults. The pre-natal history of the people we see must be taken very seriously. Practically, this means taking a greater interest in the details of the conception and pregnancy in our history taking – obviously easier to do with the parents of small children than with adolescents or adults. Also, this early exploration must be undertaken with great sensitivity and timing to avoid any sense of persecuting the biologica