How valid are memories of birth trauma?

Asked by kevbo (25672) January 23rd, 2011 from iPhone

I have two greater family members (an aunt and a distant in-law) who each have cited birth trauma (being born during anesthetized labor and/or being schedule fed instead of fed when hungry) as a source of unresolved suffering in their lives. Both are aged hippies of a sort, and surely both have experimented with drugs to one degree or another. One has pursued resolution for a number of years via primal therapy. The other apparently “relived and remembered” the birth trauma originally via an LSD trip and embarked on a bona fide academic career in an attempt to research the parallel biochemistries of birth (the naturally-produced anesthetics secreted by mother and fetus/newborn) and ingestion of LSD. Both cite the initial trauma and its persistence to remain unresolved as a dominant negative force in their lives that kept them from achieving success and fulfillment—as if they were not born whole or given a fair start. Both were at one time very academically gifted.

Was this idea of unresolved birth trauma one that creeped through the counterculture generation/movement? Does it persist today? Does anyone feel their experience is similar? What’s the deal with this idea? I’m puzzled now that I have two independent claims.