WEEK 3: Babies

I never thought too much into the phrase, "the miracle of life," but that changed after reading more about the process in the book and also watching this week's movie. It is a miracle that we are alive and relatively healthy in the first place. It seemed that every step of the was a path filled with land mines. A wrong step and our single cell bodies would have been unfit to raise by our mother's body. Then came the thoughts of having something go wrong while someone is pregnant and the risks that are around all the time. I do not have any children but that particular though scared me a bit, considering that I do want kids some day.
Reading about the stages of birth is one thing, I am sure those of you that have experienced it have your own stories about it.


There are many ways of going through childbirth, natural childbirth,  having a child in a hospital or with the aid of a midwife, then there are relatively new ways such as water birthing or by cesarean.When it is time for the baby to be born, there must be care in order to have the baby be free of complications. In case of a breech birth, it may be needed to do a cesarean or turn the baby while in the womb. After the child id born, many things start to happen quickly. Soon , the baby will begin have neonatal reflexes that usually are used to asses the  newborn's neurological functioning, as stated on page 93.

Week 2: The Needs of Many

Freud's stages of development focus on the subconscious and the role it plays in the development of people. The subconscious drives the person to seek out their wants. The stages describe how people development into a functioning human being. The Oral Stage focuses on the mouth and the needs to eat, bite, etc. The Anal Stage focuses on the toilet training while the phallic stage focuses on healthy, sexual development. The Latency Stage is where the ego begins to be most active. A person starts to control their emotions and try to assimilate in society. The Genital Stage focuses on finding and building relationships with others outside of their family.

Freud's theory is one the most interesting ones that I have studied. I was always interested in the battles that one's id and superego went through on a day to day basis. I do not really agree with all the latent sexual feelings that Freud pushes with this method, I do see strong evidence that the unconscious is important in people's development. I tend to constantly think about some of the defense mechanisms that people have. I go back to one that I have noticed in myself. When dealing with a somber topic, like death for example, I have the tendency to make jokes about whatever situation I am. I suppose it can be that subconsciously, I am afraid of the topic and I want to change it to a less serious one.

Erikson's psychosocial crisis brought back examples of crisis that I had growing up. It also  helped me realize that with every resolved crisis, came an everlasting ideology that is present in me today. I feel that the crisis of basic trust vs. mistrust seems to be relevant also during the young adulthood stage. There you hope to come out with love as the resolution but ine first must place trust in someone that isn't a lifelong family member.

I would place myself in the Self-Esteem needs level in Maslow's hierarchy. I am an adult with healthy relationships and a job where students see me as an aide in a classroom. Thinking a little harder, I can also see myself between the Safety level and the Love and Belongings level. I am responsible for my surrounding the loved ones who are in it. I want to be loved and connected but at the same time I am scred of taking big risks that may harm myself and those around me. I want to think that you can move between levels as you grow up. Thoughts?

Week 1

I have always found the Mobius strip to an impossible shape, much like the Penrose triangle. Well, I know it is not impossible but I think it is in terms of how people set their inner and outer lives. As I watched the video, Parker Palmer was talking about becoming "centered." The circle shape that becomes a wall. I do not see this as a fault. I got the idea that Palmer was saying to strive to become less circular and more like a Mobius strip. His reasoning was that we lose a part of souls as we worry about our roles in succeeding in the real world. We lose our wholesomeness that we were born with. Integrating our inner and outer lives together would make us a complete person living dual realities.

Having a wall that separates the inner world you live in from your outer world is what makes people unique. Starting off with no boundary as a child and moving onto adolescence is normal. It is the building of the wall that gives the world introverts and extroverts, different cultures that can focus on the self or the community. I don't think that we lose ourselves. The changes and developments that happen are normal as we enter adulthood. The roles that we play are ourselves. It is when we enter late adulthood that this Mobius strip is completed. Our vast buildup of skills and experiences give us a sense of being complete human beings.