Psychic identification can cause severe physical pregnancy symptoms

Evidence

Mme T.… presents serious pregnancy problems with irrepressible vomiting … The situation is so worrisome that an abortion is being considered … The young woman is disconsolate … The brief analysis that can be practiced shows [that] Mme T. subconsciously identifies with one of her former boarding school friends who had played a great role in her emotional life and who died during her first pregnancy. As soon as this cause could be uncovered, the symptoms improved; vomiting continued somewhat for two weeks but does not present any more danger. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1456

Categorization

• XREF: Foreshadows Beauvoir’s broader thesis that woman’s body is lived through meaning and relationship, not brute biology. — connects to: Psychic shame about menstruation produces real physical illness in women — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 837