Dr. Bernard Bail

Alberto Odio, MD * Bernard Bail, MD * Frederick Axelrod, MD
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Bernard Bail, MD LACMA member since 1956

In December, Bernard Bail, MD, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Beverly Hills, published The Mother's Signature, his book detailing his unorthodox hypothesis that a child's mind is initially influenced by the state of mind of his or her mother.

"It's a book about my research," Dr. Bail says, explaining that it follows in the vein of a 2001 essay he wrote on the subject. He continues: "In the mother's unconscious mind, she projects whatever she does not like, whatever she can't bear, unconsciously into the fetus she's carrying. The fetus has--what I've seen, in the dreams of my patients--a shock reaction, with fear and anxiety ensuing. All the consequences of that, what I call the 'big bang' that goes off in the fetal state, has great repercussions for one's life."

The book contains essays by Dr. Bail and colleagues, as well as a series of case histories. Regarding the mechanism affecting fetal psychology, Dr. Bail draws an analogy from the finding that mothers can affect fetal gene expression, though he shies from embracing that explanation, preferring to label it "projection."

Dr. Bail breaks with the ideas of Freud, which he describes as "superficial." Instead, he describes psychoanalysis as a "pluralistic" field, rather than a science, in which no one explanation can be right, and several point to the truth.

The Mother's Signature follows Dr. Bail's 2007 Irmgard's Flute. After being shot down in 1945, then-Air Force Lt. Bail was a German prisoner of war, and became haunted by his love for two markedly different women, one on either side of the battle lines.

Bernard Bail, MD LACMA member since 1956

In December, Bernard Bail, MD, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Beverly Hills, published The Mother's Signature, his book detailing his unorthodox hypothesis that a child's mind is initially influenced by the state of mind of his or her mother.

"It's a book about my research," Dr. Bail says, explaining that it follows in the vein of a 2001 essay he wrote on the subject. He continues: "In the mother's unconscious mind, she projects whatever she does not like, whatever she can't bear, unconsciously into the fetus she's carrying. The fetus has--what I've seen, in the dreams of my patients--a shock reaction, with fear and anxiety ensuing. All the consequences of that, what I call the 'big bang' that goes off in the fetal state, has great repercussions for one's life."

The book contains essays by Dr. Bail and colleagues, as well as a series of case histories. Regarding the mechanism affecting fetal psychology, Dr. Bail draws an analogy from the finding that mothers can affect fetal gene expression, though he shies from embracing that explanation, preferring to label it "projection."

Dr. Bail breaks with the ideas of Freud, which he describes as "superficial." Instead, he describes psychoanalysis as a "pluralistic" field, rather than a science, in which no one explanation can be right, and several point to the truth.

The Mother's Signature follows Dr. Bail's 2007 Irmgard's Flute. After being shot down in 1945, then-Air Force Lt. Bail was a German prisoner of war, and became haunted by his love for two markedly different women, one on either side of the battle lines.

Alberto Odio, MD * Bernard Bail, MD * Frederick Axelrod, MD