THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY
In subsequent experiments
in the 1950s, he built surrogate
mothers for the infants, one out
of wire that provided milk but
no comfort; another out of wood
and lined with soft cloth that
provided warmth and comfort
but no food. The monkeys would
crawl to the wire mother for milk,
but they spent the vast majority of
their time cuddled up to the soft,
warm mother. Contact, it seemed,
was more important than food.
Meanwhile, John Bowlby
and other child specialists had
been making claims about the
importance of maternal care for
over two decades. Based on his
studies of homeless and hospital-
ized children, Bowlby described
a “human separation syndrome”
that resulted in protest, despair
and aggression. In 1951 he published an influential report for the World
Health Organisation entitled “Maternal Care and Mental Health”, in
which he argued that infants have an instinctual need for motherly
love. Bowlby’s suggestion that infants deprived of this love will develop
psychological problems later in life appeared to be supported by
Harlow’s research. The baby macaques raised by surrogate mothers, even
cloth-covered ones, developed terrible behavioural problems later in life.
They were incapable of successful mating and after artificial insemina-
tion they often killed their own offspring.
Harlow’s work remains hugely controversial and is seen by many as
unnecessarily cruel. Others made the obvious criticism that what’s true
of monkeys doesn’t necessarily apply to humans. The impact of his
research was undoubtedly magnified by its timing, as it was published
during an era of great social flux. Before the orphaned macaques grew up
and developed psychopathologies, the apparent success of the surrogate
mothers was interpreted by some commentators as showing that human
fathers could just as successfully rear young children, thus freeing
women to pursue ambitions outside the home.
An infant rhesus monkey clings to its
surrogate mother.