Eventually, Harlow and Suomi gave up on the artificial
monstermothersbecausetheyfoundsomethingbetter:areal
monkey mother who was a monster. To produce such
mothers,theyrearedfemalemonkeysinisolation, andthen
triedtomakethempregnant.Unfortunately thefemalesdid
nothavenormalsexualrelationswithmalemonkeys,sothey
had to be made pregnant by a technique thatHarlow and
Suomirefertoasa“raperack.”Whenthebabieswereborn
the experimenters observed the monkeys. They found that
somesimplyignoredtheinfants,failingtocuddlethecrying
baby to the breast as normal monkeys do when
they hear their baby cry. The other pattern of behavior
observed was different:
Theothermonkeyswerebrutalorlethal.Oneoftheirfavorite
trickswastocrushtheinfant’sskullwiththeirteeth.Butthe
really sickeningbehavior pattern wasthatof smashing the
infant’s face to the floor, and then rubbing it back and forth.^11
In a 1972 paper, Harlow and Suomi say that because
depressioninhumanshasbeencharacterizedasembodyinga
stateof“helplessnessandhopelessness,sunkeninawellof
despair,”they designeda device“on an intuitivebasis” to
reproduce such a “well of despair” both physically and
psychologically.Theybuiltaverticalchamberwithstainless
steel sides sloping inward to form a rounded bottom and
placedayoungmonkeyinitforperiodsofuptoforty-five
days.Theyfoundthatafterafewdaysofthisconfinementthe
monkeys“spendmostoftheirtimehuddledinacornerofthe
chamber.”Theconfinementproduced“severeandpersistent
psychopathological behavior of a depressive nature.” Even
nine months after release the monkeys would sit clasping
theirarmsaroundtheirbodiesinsteadofmovingaroundand