The Beginnings of Human Life

by E. Blechschmidt, Transemantics Inc. (Translator)

Overview

Although a human embryo possesses so much grace that the untutored spectator can only admire it in awe, this minute and humble embryo is still almost unknown to many. For some, it seems to belong to the animal kingdom only; others see in it man in his most primordial and elementary aspect. The early life of man thus has become a problem. The development of man as individual (individual development) begins with fertilization. The following pages, therefore, concentrate above all on the develop- ment from the ovum to the embryo. The description given below of the ontogenesis of the human embryo and its early functions has been completely documented by our human-embryological collection. Numerous original pho- tographs and systematically revised drawings were pub- lished in 1973 under the title Die praenatalen Organsys- teme des Menschen (The Prenatal Organ Systems of Man); the supplementary scientific commentaries were published in 1977 in Biokinetics and Biodynamics of Human Differentiations. A complete series of portrait illustrations is located at the Science Centre in Toronto, Canada.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780387902494
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	12/21/1977
Series:	Heidelberg Science Library
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

1 Introduction.- Classical Anatomy.- … Is Enlarged to Kinetic Morphology.- Developmental Movements Are Detectable Today.- Serial Section Reconstructions Yield New Data about the Human Embryo.- 2 A Proper Concept for Human Embryology.- A New Concept: Differentiation in Biodynamic Metabolic Fields.- Adaptation through Growth and Heredity through Propagation.- 3 The Initial Development of the Ovum.- Life Processes during the First Cell Differentiations.- The Individuality of the Germ.- The Germ Performs Functions.- Differentiations Are Directional.- Genes Have Passive Functions.- Life Processes in the Metabolic Field of the Blasyst.- 4 Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis.- The Error of the So-called Basic Law of Biogenetics.- Erroneous Conclusions Drawn from Phylogenetic Series.- Differentiations Are Partial Processes of Individual Development.- 5 Development of Functions.- The Different Functions of Limiting Tissue and Inner Tissue.- The Secret of the Center of Organization.- Each Cell Aggregation Has Formative Functions.- Teleological Thinking Led to Confusions.- The Earliest Differentiations Are a Development of Functions.- The Secret of the Gills.- Early and Late Functions of the Nervous System.- The Face between Brain and Heart.- 6 The Embryo’s More Differentiated Developmental Movements.- The First Breath.- Early Developmental Movements in the Region of the Viscera.- The First Grasping Movements.- 7 Basic Rules of Biodynamic Differentiations.- 8 Gestures Initiated by Elementary Functions.- The Hand in the Service of Grasping.- Physiognomy and Physiognomics.- Embryonic Calendar.- Survey of Developmental Stages.- Plates.