The origins of the mind: the psychic life of the foetus. Alle origini della mente: la vita psichica fetale

The study of the psychic life of the foetus is based on the idea that the experiences lived through by the foetus in the uterus model the evolving psychic structures and have influence on cognitive efficiency, on psychosomatic equilibrium and on the future personality of the individual. In support of this hypothesis, some particularly complex experimental studies have been able to show how the foetus is able to perceive the external environment, to communicate with it and to store a memory of the experiences it has lived through. The presence of basic cognitive functions such as perception, memory: attention and learning processes has been demonstrated in the foetus. More complex, and experimentally little explored, is without doubt the field of emotional interaction between maternal. lived experiences and the foetus. in this study we wish to present an examination of the range of research contributions which have experimentally outlined aspects of the psychic life of the foetus, so that we can subsequently reflect on the general implications concerning the psychic life of the foetus which can be drawn from them