What are Grof matrices and can you trust them

What are Grof matrices

Grof's matrices is a pseudoscientific theory that states that the infant's experiences at birth determineThe Four Stages of Birth: Their Agonies and Ecstasies / American Institute for Learning and Human Development his character, temperament and deeds.

In general, the idea of ​​a similar influence of birth experiences is not new. At the beginning of the 20th century, this was suggested byBirth trauma / Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank. He introduced the concept of "birth trauma": they say, anxiety and fear associated with the separation of the child from the mother, have a strong effect on the psyche. Because of what happened, people have been suffering for decades from an unconscious desire to return to the mother's womb, the "intrauterine paradise". This leads to phobias, increased anxiety and aggressiveness. Rank believed that only a good psychotherapist could "cure" this, who would help a person remember and consciously experience the trauma of birth, work through it.

Half a century later, the American psychiatrist of Czech origin Stanislav Grof revised and supplemented Rank's idea. Based on his own observations, Grof identified four stages through which every infant supposedly goes through. The psychiatrist suggested: a person gets stuck on a stage that he was experiencing especially hard or brightly. This concept began to be called Grof's matrices, or perinatal (from lat. roots peri - "about", and natalis - "related to birth") matrices.

What are Grof's matrices and what each of them means

Adepts of the theory describeIntroduction to Transpersonal Psychology The Research of Stanislav Grof / SILO the influence of matrices on the psyche is so.

1. Basic Perinatal Matrix I (BPM I). The period of "intrauterine paradise", when the baby has not yet been born. If the pregnancy proceeded well, the child feels safe after birth, which means he has high self-esteem and is able to trust people. But after a hard pregnancy the newborn will constantly suffer from the feeling of its own uselessness.
2. Basic Perinatal Matrix II (BPM II). Period of contractions. If it turned out to be short-lived and the child passed it easily, then later the person will be sure that “everything is for the better”, all troubles are surmountable - all you have to do is clench your teeth and move forward. And vice versa: after long and painful contractions, the baby develops psychology victims. Caesarean section is a borderline case, because the child does not receiveHealing Deep Pain / TASSO Instituut neither negative nor positive experience. As a result, such a person will hesitate and refuse responsibility all his life.
3. Basic Perinatal Matrix III (BPM III). Stage of attempts. The kid suffocates, but gradually moves towards a new life and supposedly experiences ecstasy from the anticipation of imminent freedom. A person obsessed with BPM III is always looking for a thrill. Without them, life seems to him insipid and meaningless. To conquer something, overcoming oneself and others - this is the meaning of its existence, in which true pleasure is impossible without suffering.
4. Basic Perinatal Matrix IV (BPM IV). The moment of birth. Around the new world, now you have to breathe on your own and look for food. If it turns out to be easy, for example, the child is immediately applied to the mother's breast, then the baby is imbued with confidence in the world. If the mother is not available, the baby experiences severe stress and begins to be afraid of everything new. This fear remains for life. A separate story is anesthesia during childbirth. According to Grof, in this case, the children get to know each otherHealing Deep Pain / TASSO Instituut with intoxication and then they will constantly strive for alcohol or drugs to replicate the infant experience.

All this is, of course, interesting. But if you took Grof's matrices as a guide to planning childbirth, or are going to judge the future of the child by how his birth went, you better stop.

Should you trust Grof's matrices

From a scientific point of view, no. Grof himself was involved in very peculiar things, such as psychedelic therapy, and even developed a special technique to replace LSD - holotropic breathing. The effectiveness of this method has not been proven.Journal editors criticize MDMA study as nonscientific, unethical / The Medical Dictionary. As well as scientific character in general transpersonal psychology, followed by Grof.

Scientists criticizeDagbaeva S. B. Methodological crisis and types of scientific paradigms in modern psychology / Humanitarian vector Grof and colleagues for mysticism, subjectivity, and pseudoscientific approach. The transpersonal psychologists themselves have not been able toDaniels M. Shadow, Self, Spirit: Essays in Transpersonal Psychology provide evidence of their innocence.

Therefore, the American Psychological Organization does not recognizeRuzek N. Transpersonal Psychology in Context: Perspectives from Its Founders and Historians of American Psychology / The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology transpersonal psychology as a separate scientific discipline, and researchers, in principle, do not conduct discussions about the possibility of the existence of perinatal matrices.

In fact, all the observations of Stanislav Grof were subjective and adjusted to the theory invented by him. The scientific nature and integrity of this concept burst at the first encounter with reality. So, women who have experienced difficult life situations during pregnancy may well have confident and lively children. And after a cesarean section, not only drug addicts and alcoholics are born.