Couvade: Ritual or Real Illness

Rethinking the Couvade

T he need and the necessity to represent the natural process of birth by means of a symbolic action and to organize it ritually as a cultural process of constructing personhood are inherent to all human groups, which have always sought to transmit their collective experience through their cultural system as a whole. The very continuity of the community depends on these events in which social or...

Couvade Syndrome among Polish expectant fathers

BACKGROUND The aim of the conducted study was to analyze the phenomenon of Couvade Syndrome amongst fathers expecting their children in Poland. The authors examined the frequency of couvade symptoms in male subjects as well as their associations with male empathy. MATERIAL AND METHODS The research involved 143 expectant fathers. All subjects attended antenatal classes, and their female partne...

Soviet Secular Ritual: Atheist Propaganda or Spiritual Consumerism?

Ritual Process

iii Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Bill and Barbara, my brother, Peter, sister-in-law, Sharon, my girlfriend, Sylvia, my cat, Oli, and all the other family and friends that have supported me in the pursuit of my dreams. iv Acknowledgement I am grateful to my thesis committee members, Aaron McNamee, Dan Rule and Kathy Rodriguez for all their help and guidance. I appreciate th...

Mental Illness : Medication or Therapy ?