Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection

by Deborah Blum

  Chapter Seven: Chains of Love

  L. Joseph Stone, Henrietta T. Smith, and Lois B. Murphy, eds., The Competent Infant: Research and Commentary (New York: Basic Books, 1973).

  Correspondence between Harry Harlow and Joseph Stone and Nancy Bayley is housed at the Archives of the History of American Psychology.

  Hebb cited in Harry F. Harlow, “The Brain and Learned Behavior,” Computers and Automation, vol. 4, no. 10 (October 1955). Hebb’s correspondence with Harlow is archived at McGill University, but psychology historian, Steve Glickman, of the University of California-Berkeley and a former Hebb student, kindly provided me with copies. Hebb is considered by many psychologists to be the outstanding theorist of the mid-twentieth century; his theories about the effect of experience on neurons in the brain are considered classics of their time. He is only briefly a part of this particular story but in the larger sense of psychology history, he deserves much more credit.

  The University of Wisconsin has archived hundreds of press clippings, and press releases from Harry Harlow’s heyday in the 1960s in particular. To give a sense of the popular appeal of his work, I’d like to cite: John Kord Lageman, “What Monkeys Are Teaching Science About Children,” This Week, 3 March 1963; “Can Mothers Be Replaced?” Picture Magazine, 26 July 1959; Clarissa Start, “Raising Baby Monkeys with Cloth Mother,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, 3 May 1960.

  The problems with the surrogate raised mothers are described in Leonard Engel, “The Troubled Monkeys of Madison,” New York Times, January 29, 1961.

  Early experiments in rat-handling are detailed in Seymour Levine, “A Further Study of Infantile Handling and Adult Avoidance Learning,” Journal of Personality 25 (1956): 70–80; Seymour Levine and Leon S. Otis, “The Effects of Handling Before and After Weaning on the Resistance of Albino Rats to Later Deprivation,” Canadian Journal of Psychology 12 (1958): 2; Seymour Levine and George W. Lewis, “Critical Period for Effects of Infantile Experience on Maturation of Stress Response,” Science (1959): 129, 42–43; Theodore Schaefer, Jr., “Some Methodological Implications of the Research on ‘Early Handling’ in the Rat,” in Grant Newton and Seymour Levine, eds., Early Experience and Behavior: The Psychobiology of Development (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1968).

  Victor Denenberg’s related studies appear, among other places, in Victor Denenberg and Robert Bell, “Critical Periods for the Effects of Infantile Experience on Adult Learning,” Science, vol. 131 (1960); and in Victor Denenberg and John C. Morton, “Effects of Environmental Complexity and Social Groupings Upon Modification of Emotional Behavior,” Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, vol. 55, no. 2 (1955).

  Both “hot mamma” and rocking surrogates are discussed in Harry F. Harlow and Stephen J. Suomi, “The Nature of Love—Simplified,” American Psychologist, vol. 25, no. 2 (February 1970). The studies continued, as reported in C. M. Baysinger, P. E. Plubell, and H. F. Harlow, “A Variable Temperature Surrogate Mother for Studying Attachment in Infant Monkeys,” Behavioral Research and Methods, vol. 5, no. 3 (1973).

  William Mason and Gershon Berkson’s work with motion is described in “Effects of Maternal Mobility on the Development of Rocking and Other Behaviors in Rhesus Monkeys: A Study with Artificial Mothers,” Developmental Psychobiology 8, no. 3 (1975): 197–211; in M. V. Neal, “Vestibular Stimulation and Developmental Behavior of the Small Premature Infant,” Nursing Research Report, American Nurses Foundation, vol. 3, no. 1 (March 1968); and in further detail, along with later studies including the rocking horse surrogates, in William A. Mason, “Social Experience and Primate Cognitive Development,” The Development of Behavior: Comparative Evolutionary Aspects, ed. Gordon Burghardt and Mark Bekoff (New York: Garland STPM Press, 1978); William A. Mason, “Maternal Attributes and Primate Cognitive Development,” in Human Ethology: Claims and Limits of New Discipline, ed. M. Von Cranach, K. Foppa, W. Lepenies, and D. Floog (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).

  Harry Harlow’s comment on the limits of the surrogate mother cited in Engel, “Troubled Monkeys.” The role of the mother as socializer is further discussed in “The Effect of Rearing Conditions on Behavior,” a presentation by Harry F. Harlow and Margaret K. Harlow to a forum of the Menninger School of Psychiatry, December 4, 1961. The issue of mothers who keep their children too close to home is discussed in G. W. Moller, H. F. Harlow, and G. D. Mitchell, “Factors Affecting Agonistic Communication in Rhesus Monkeys,” Behavior, vol. 31 (1968).

  Mother-infant relationship studies: L. A. Rosenblum and H. F. Harlow, “Approach-Avoidance Conflict in the Mother Surrogate Situation,” Psychological Reports, vol. 12 (1963); and L. A. Rosenblum and H. F. Harlow, “Generalization of Affectional Responses in Rhesus Monkeys,” Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 16 (1963).

  Robert Hinde’s perspective is found in Patrick Bateson, ed., The Development and Integration of Behavior: Essays in Honor of Robert Hinde (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); and Robert Hinde, Individuals, Culture and Relationships (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). I read both books on recommendation of Professor Hinde and found them an enlightening look at the science of relationships, a theme that runs through this book.

  Different primate parenting styles in M. W. Andrews and L. A. Rosenblum, “Assessment of Attachment in Differentially Reared Infant Monkeys—Response to Separation and a Novel Environment,” Journal of Comparative Psychology, vol. 107, no. 1 (March 1993).

  The study of peer relationship is addressed in A. S. Chamove, L. A. Rosenburg, and H. F. Harlow, “Monkeys Raised Only with Peers: A Pilot Study,” Animal Behavior 21, no. 2 (1973): 316–325; Stephen J. Suomi and Harry F. Harlow, “The Role and Reason of Peer Relationships in Rhesus Monkeys,” in Friendship and Peer Relationships, ed. Lewis Rosenblum (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1975); Harry F. Harlow, “Age-Mate or Peer Affectional System,” Advances in the Study of Behavior, vol. 2, 1969; and Stephen J. Suomi, “Peers, Play and Primary Prevention in Primates,” in Proceedings of the Third Conference on Primary Prevention of Psychopathology (Hanover N.H.: University Press of New England, 1979).

  The first paper published on the studies of monkey family support systems was “Nuclear Family Apparatus,” Margaret K. Harlow, Behavioral Research Methods and Instruments, vol. 3, no. 6 (1971). Many of the other papers appeared after Margaret Harlow’s death. I relied particularly on G. C. Ruppenthal, M. K. Harlow, C. D. Eisele, H. F. Harlow, and S. J. Suomi, “Development of Peer Interactions of Monkeys Reared in a Nuclear-Family Environment,” Child Development 45 (1974): 670–682. I also found the discussion in Harry F. Harlow and Clara Mears Harlow, eds., Learning to Love: The Selected Papers of H. F. Harlow (New York: Praeger, 1986), enlightening.

  The monster mothers are described in Stone, Smith, and Murphy, Competent Infant.

  Chapter Eight: The Baby in the Box

  Doggerel from Harry Harlow, “The Nature of Love,” presidential address, 66th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., August 31, 1958.

  Further description of nuclear family actions from G. C. Ruppenthal, M. K. Harlow, C. D. Eisele, H. F. Harlow, and S. J. Suomi, “Development of Peer Interactions of Monkeys Reared in a Nuclear-Family Environment,” Child Development, vol. 45, (1974), and in Harry F. Harlow and Clara Mears, The Human Model: Primate Perspectives, New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1979.

  The “Hell of Loneliness” chapter is in Harlow and Mears, The Human Model.

  Depression and isolation studies include: “The Effect of Total Social Deprivation on the Development of Monkey Behavior,” in Psychiatric Research Report, vol. 19, American Psychiatric Association (December 1964); “Total Social Isolation in Monkeys,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 54, no. 1 (1965); Harry F. Harlow and Billy Seay, “Mothering in Motherless Mother Monkeys,” The British Journal of Social Psychiatry, vol. 1, no. 1 (1966).

  Harry F. Harlow and Stephen J. Suomi, “Production of Depressive Behaviors in Young Monkeys,” Journal of Aut
ism and Childhood Schizophrenia 1, no. 3 (1971): 246–255; “Depressive Behavior in Young Monkeys Subjected to Vertical Chamber Confinement,” Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 180, no. 1 (1972): 11–18; Harry F. Harlow, Philip E. Plubell, and Craig M. Baysinger, “Induction of Psychological Death in Rhesus Monkeys,” Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia 3, no. 4 (1973): 299–307; Stephen J. Suomi, Mary L. Collins, and Harry F. Harlow, “Effects of Permanent Separation from Mother on Rhesus Monkeys,” Developmental Psychology, vol. 9, no. 3 (1979); “Induced Depression in Monkeys,” Behavioral Biology 12 (1974): 273–296; Stephen J. Suomi, Carol D. Eisele, Sharon A. Grady, and Harry F. Harlow, “Depressive Behavior in Adult Monkeys Following Separation from Family Environment,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 84, no. 5 (1975): 576–578.

  Peer therapy work includes: H. F. Harlow, M. K. Harlow, and S. J. Suomi, “From Thought to Therapy: Lessons from a Primate Laboratory,” American Scientist (September-October 1971); Stephen J. Suomi, Harry F. Harlow, and Melinda A. Novak, “Reversal of Social Deficits Produced by Isolation Rearing of Monkeys,” Journal of Human Evolution 3 (1974): 527–534; Harry F. Harlow and Stephen J. Suomi, “Social Recovery By Isolation-Reared Monkeys,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 68, no. 7 (1971); Harry F. Harlow and Melinda A. Novak, “Psychopathological Perspectives,” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 16, no. 3 (1973); “Social Recovery of Monkeys Isolated for the First Year of Life,” Developmental Psychology 11, no. 4 (1975).

  Harry’s comment on the university’s handling of Margaret Harlow appears in Carol Tavris, “Harry, You Are Going to Go Down in History As the Father of the Cloth Mother,” Psychology Today (April 1973).

  Chapter Nine: Cold Hearts and Warm Shoulders

  Bruno Bettelheim wrote about refrigerator mothers and their relationship to Harry Harlow’s surrogates in The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of Self (New York: The Free Press, 1967).

  Harry Harlow’s review of the book: H. F. Harlow, “A Brief Look At Autistic Children,” Psychiatry & Social Science Review 3, no. 1 (January 1969): 27–29.

  Sarah Blaffer Hrdy writes about scientific attitudes toward women scientists in Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999).

  Diane E. Eyers, Mother-Infant Bonding (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992).

  The Maggie story appears in Harry F. Harlow, “Birth of the Surrogate Mother,” Discovery Processes in Modern Biology, ed. W. M. Klemm (Huntington, N.Y.: R. E. Krieger, 1977).

  Jane Glascock’s letter about Harry Harlow’s appearance at the University of Washington-Seattle is housed at the Archives of the History of American Psychology.

  The description of Clara Mears Harlow’s life in between her two marriages to Harry is outlined in her file with the Lewis Terman gifted project archive at Stanford University, and also based on interviews with her two sons, Robert Israel and Richard Potter.

  Harry Harlow’s correspondence with William Verplanck is housed at the Archives of the History of American Psychology.

  The quotes about Wisconsin weather and retirement are in “Behavioral Giant Not Going to Seed,” The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, August 3, 1978.

  Sears’s letter is archived in the Lewis Terman gifted project files at Stanford. The letter to William Mason courtesy of Mason’s personal files.

  Harlow’s doggerel from his days in Arizona is courtesy of Robert Israel’s private collection.

  Clara Harlow’s correspondence with Sears archived in the Lewis Terman gifted project files.

  Chapter Ten: Love Lessons

  A review of the way human infants watch, read, and respond to their mother’s faces, including the virtual cliff experiment, can be found in the writings of Edward Z. Tronick: Jeffrey Cohn and Edward Tronick, “Specificity of Responses to Mother’s Affective Behavior,” Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 28, no. 2 (1989): 242–248; Edward Z. Tronick, “Emotions and Emotional Communication in Infants,” American Psychologist 44, no. 2 (February 1989): 112–119; L. Murray and P. Cooper, eds., “Depressed Mothers and Infants: Failure to Form Dyadic States of Consciousness” in Postpartum Depression and Child Development (New York: Guilford Press, 1997); Edward Z. Tronick and Andrew Gianino, “Interactive Mismatch and Repair: Challenges to the Coping Infant,” Zero to Three, vol. 6, no. 3 (February 1986); “Dyadically Expanded States of Consciousness and the Process of Therapeutic Change,” Infant Mental Health Journal 19, no. 3 (1998): 290–299.

  Judith Rich Harris, The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do (New York: The Free Press, 1998).

  Harry F. Harlow and Margaret K. Harlow, “Learning to Love,” American Scientist 54, no. 3 (1966): 244–272. This was also the title of a book co-edited by Harry and Clara Harlow.

  See previous Bowlby citations, also Mary Salter Ainsworth and John Bowlby, “An Ethological Approach to Personality Development,” American Psychologist, vol. 46, no. 4 (April 1991): 333–341; and Deprivation of Maternal Care (World Health Organization [WHO] report, Geneva, 1962).

  Marshall H. Klaus and John H. Kennell, Bonding: The Beginnings of Parent-Infant Attachment, rev. ed. (New York: New American Library, 1983).

  Marshall H. Klaus, John H. Kennell, and Phyllis H. Klaus, Bonding: Building the Foundations of Secure Attachment and Independence, first paperback ed. (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1996.)

  Meredith F. Small, Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent (New York: Anchor Books, 1998); Kids: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Raise Our Children (New York: Doubleday, 2001).

  The NICHD study of childcare discussed in Deborah Blum, Sex on the Brain: The Biological Differences Between Men and Women (New York: Viking, 1997). One of the best perspectives on day care is Ellen Ruppel Shell, A Child’s Place: A Year in the Life of a Daycare Center (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1992).

  Suomi’s work on mothering styles is found in Jude Cassidy and Phillip R. Shaver, eds., “Attachment in Rhesus Monkeys,” Handbook of Attachment (New York: The Guildford Press, 1999).

  Leonard Rosenblum’s look at “aunted” monkeys is cited in L. T. Nash and R. L. Wheeler, “Mother-Infant Relationships in Non-Human Primates,” in Hiram E. Fitzgerald, John A. Mullins, and Patricia Gage, eds., Child Nurturance, vol. 3 (New York, Plenum Press, 1982). He is co-editor with Michael Lewis of two books that further explore such relationships: Michael Lewis and Leonard A. Rosenblum, eds., The Effect of the Infant on Its Caregiver (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974); and The Child and Its Family (New York: Plenum Press, 1979).

  The behavior of titi monkeys appears in Sally P. Mendoza and William A. Mason, “Parental Division of Labor and Differentiation of Attachments in a Monogamous Primate,” Animal Behavior, vol. 34 (1986).

  Cotton top tamarin society is discussed in Charles T. Snowdon, “Infant Care in Cooperatively Breeding Species,” Advances in the Study of Behavior, vol. 25, 1996; and Gretchen G. Achenbach and Charles T. Snowdon, “Response to Sibling Birth in Juvenile Cotton Top Tamarins,” Behaviour, vol. 135, no. 7 (1998).

  Myron A. Hofer, “Infant Separation Responses and the Maternal Role,” Biological Psychiatry, vol. 10, no. 2 (1975).

  Saul M. Schanberg and Tiffany M. Field, “Sensory Deprivation Stress and Supplemental Stimulation in the Rat Pup and Preterm Human,” Child Development, vol. 58 (1987); S. M. Schanberg, “Medicine: Different Strokes,” Scientific American (September 1989): 34; “Touch: A Biological Regulator of Growth and Development in the Neonate,” Verhaltenstherapie, vol. 3, Suppl. 15 (1993); Daniel Goleman, “The Experience of Touch: Research Points to a Critical Role,” New York Times, 2 February 1988.

  Sapolsky’s discussion of rat stress experiments is found in Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (W. H. Freeman and Co., 1994). The studies with Michael Meaney are also discussed in that book. Further information on Meaney’s research comes from his presentation at the February 2001 meeting of the A
merican Association for Advancement of Science in San Francisco and from discussion with another of his research colleagues, Paul Plotsky, at Emory University in Atlanta.

  Martin H. Teicher, “Scars That Won’t Heal: The Neurobiology of Child Abuse,” Scientific American, vol. 286, no. 3 (March 2002).

  Bruce Perry quoted in Deborah Blum, “Attention Deficit,” Mother Jones (January/February 1999). Information on face-reading skills from Deborah Blum, “Let’s Face It,” Psychology Today, vol. 31, no. 5 (September/October 1998).

  Harry’s comment about love and modesty in a letter to William Verplanck, housed at the Archives of the History of American Psychology in Akron.

  Epilogue: Extreme Love

  Harry Harlow’s discussion of the aspects of love and the importance of primate research in answering questions of child abuse in “Behavioral Giant Not ‘Going to Seed,’” The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, August 3, 1978.

  The proposed NIH experiment on isolating children is described in a textbook: Harry F. Harlow, James L. McGaugh, and Richard F. Thompson, eds., Psychology (San Francisco: Albion Publishing Company, 1971).

  Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon, A General Theory of Love (New York: Random House, 2000).

  Sapolsky quotes on animal research from his Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (W. H. Freeman and Co., 1994).

  Harlow comments on his perspective on monkeys from Robert Bonin, “Harry Harlow Has Spent a Lifetime Studying Monkeys—Which Doesn’t Mean He Likes Them,” Milwaukee Journal, October 28, 1973.

  Mason’s comment from Deborah Blum, The Monkey Wars (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).