The Prenatal Person: Frank Lake's Maternal-Fetal Distress Syndrome

Frank Lake was a British psychiatrist and lay theologian who substantially influenced the interplay of psychology and theology in the United Kingdom over the last several decades. Even though he died in 1983, his ideas continue to be debated through his books and the organization he founded, the Clinical Theology Association. Lake called his discovery and formulation of 'a new paradigm for psychodynamics with revolutionary implications' the 'Maternal-Fetal Distress Syndrome.' He wrote that this 'new perspective changes almost everything in counseling,' constituting 'a radical departure from all that has gone before.' Furthermore, he noted that the 'understanding of psychodynamics can never be the same again. Nor its practice.' The description and analysis of this 'new paradigm' and its 'revolutionary implications' are the topics of this work.