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The following is a presentation of some aspects of a pilot research study which was undertaken during 1982–1984 and was supported by the Fonds National suisse de la Recherche scientifique.1 Our aim was to study the principal modifications and transformations relating to the period 40–60 years of age among women as well as men.

The problems of women in their fifties were observed in the context of a discussion group formed by six patients who met over a period of four months. What was interesting about the meetings was the quality of the inter-personal relationships and the almost immediate sharing of difficulties and emotions, which were discussed much more forcefully and openly than in a dialogue with the doctor. Generally, the main conflict resided in the contradiction and ambiguity existing between the sense of duty and the still intense and vigorous desires in women who, before the forming of the group, believed that they had lost everything that made life worth living.

Multidisciplinary research on a number of unmarried mothers who, since the delivery, chose to live with their child in homes called ‘Hotels Maternels’, where great attention is given to a good psychological environment and best care to the baby. The clinical observation (medical, psychological tests etc.) has been devoted to the somatic and psychoaffective development of the offspring from birth to school age; the investigation on the mother concerns her personality, emotional state and psychiatric pathology. Special consideration is given to mother-child relationship. The aim is to appreciate the chances of a good social integration for the mother and the baby as well as the effect of good care for both. The first results of the research show no gross maternal psychiatric pathology, but clearly indicate that a lonely motherhood represents a transitional state with ambivalence and feelings of incompleteness very much like those experienced by a married woman living existential or personal difficulties.

It is uncertain whether the efforts made by modern woman to break away from her traditional position in the couple and in society will be crowned with success. The gynaecologist does not fail to consider in his field that woman's protest, on the one hand, and her affirmation, on the other hand, influence her genital physiology. Her inability to adapt herself may manifest itself in relatively specific disorders, whereas, on the contrary, her equilibrium will guarantee the harmonious functioning of her organs. This equilibrium is conditioned by a profound sense of her identity, based on a perfect integration of her body and her affective potential. If this sense is developed, she will approach the world around her with more or even unlimited security. The author has carefully examined a certain number of gynaecological situations and observed how the patient at one with herself is able to integrate her sex. This feeling of harmony provides an obstacle to the conviction of being at the mercy of a sort of evolutional fate from puberty to menopause. Even when her ailing body no longer corresponds to the definitions of health she adopts an attitude which shows that she accepts herself in all her femininity.

In der Praxis, in der sich leicht Routine einnistet, ist es gut, einmal haltzumachen und uber den Sinn der Arbeit nachzudenken.

More than men, women have a rhythm of life defined by their biological stages to the point that very often their feelings of completeness and of feminine identity depend upon the good integration of their physical evolution.

The configuration of Switzerland makes it difficult to give a single picture of this land where many cultures meet, formed of a gradual addition, after 1291, of cantons which have always preserved their individual characteristics.