And now, love can change your community and the world.
Dr. Bernard Bail’s legacy is his psychoanalytic theory that everyone is given an imprint in utero. This imprint has cut us off from our truest selves and held us back from being who we were meant to be. According to Dr. Bail’s philosophy, our best chance as humans is to become aware that what is ruling everyone, from individuals, to families, to governments, is an imprint. If we can understand what it is that we all suffer from, perhaps we can begin to treat each other with more love, compassion, and understanding. Said Dr. Bail, “The world has suffered no love. Time now for the world to get the love they really desperately need.”
And now, love can blossom even with your enemies
After being captured by the Nazis during WWII and imprisoned in a German hospital, Dr. Bail began a clandestine affair with his German nurse, Irmgard. “I told her I was Jewish. She said that didn’t matter to her,” recalled Dr. Bail. “She cared about whether I was a good person. How liberating is that?” As Dr. Bail often said, “A lot of people helped me in my life. Even the enemy.” From this profound experience, Dr. Bail’s life and work were forever changed.
And now, love can create self-acceptance apart from your mother’s imprint.
Dr. Bail’s years of working with patients taught him that all emotional illness is rooted in the relationship between mother and infant, from the moment of conception. Bail posits, “We all live impressed by this imprint, the unconscious and unresolved negative feelings a mother has about herself that are passed down in utero from generation to generation. This imprint is the result of centuries of female oppression and abuse that cuts us off from knowing pure love and our true potential.” By understanding who we are separate from our imprints, we can truly love ourselves, and by so doing, receive love and give love.
And now, love can overcome racism, anti-Semitism and cultural divides.
Dr. Bail believed that the greatest force that moves mankind is love.
Having experienced anti-Semitism over the course of his life, Dr. Bail came to see that acceptance of differences starts with each individual finding self-love and treating others with love. In his last years, he saw anti-Semitism and racism come out of the shadows and was disturbed by the hatred and bigotry that is now part of the political discourse. His belief was that those who had not dealt with their traumatic imprints were the source of the world’s divides. Bail thought if we were free from judgment of others, if we share what we need from each other, if we don’t fear rejection from each other, then hate and bigotry can be eliminated over time.